Uemura Shōen (1875–1949)
Two Teahouses
Color and gold on silk, hanging scroll
With a box signed by the artist, double boxed
Seal: Shoen
143 x 50 cm
231 x 65 cm (overall)
Further images
Two beautiful women are walking close to each other. The cheeks and earlobes of the woman on the right are slightly reddish, perhaps indicating a degree of intoxication. She is wearing her hair in a yuiwata style that consists of a tsubushi shimada combined a with kanoko hair-band, usually worn by unmarried woman, which therefore allows to roughly guess her age. The petals of the cherry blossoms are white against the deep scarlet color of the kimono with the hanabishi pattern (flower-shaped family crest), but looking closely one also notices how petals of cherry blossom scatter around in the air. It implies a cherry tree maybe somewhere to the right of the women, its branches moving gently in the wind. The graceful combination of the red silk peeking out from the collar, the light green of the obi and its golden lightning pattern all highlight the elegance and refinement of the woman.
The woman on the left is wearing a tan-colored kimono and an oshidori (“mandarin duck”) topknot hairstyle; she holds a paper lantern with the inscription nikenchaya from which the title of this painting is derived. Nikenchaya means “two teahouses,” either one on each side of a street or two buildings next to each other. Gion in Kyoto, Tamatsukuri Inari in Osaka or the Tomioka Hachiman Shrine area in Edo are famous for this type of teahouse. According to Kurokawa Doshu’s Yoshu Fushi (History of Yamashiro), the first teahouses in Kyoto were two stores in Gion and one in front of the Kitano Shrine. In the old days, two teahouses called nikenchaya faced each other on the main approach to Yasaka Shrine. One of them, the Kashiwaya, was active in uninterrupted succession to the present day and is known as the Nakamuraro. Two stone lanterns in front of the shrine gate with the inscription “nikenchaya Nakamuraro” still bear witness to the tea houses’ 480-year old history.
The scholarly compendium Shoen Uemura gashu (Kyoto Shinbunsha, 1989), a standard work of Shoen research, includes four paintings almost identical in composition to this one: Spring in the Pleasure Quarters, circa 1911; Spring Evening, circa 1936; and two works also titled Spring in the Pleasure Quarters, circa 1936 and 1937, respectively. This is telling about Shoen’s method of creating paintings: she would first produce a small sketch to outline the composition, then proceed to a full size preparatory drawing that included detailed facial expressions, gestures, backgrounds etc. After that, she would place another paper on top and trace the image for the final painting. This way, Shoen was able to use the same preparatory drawing for multiple finished paintings that would greatly resemble each other.
In Shoen Uemura gashu, the aforementioned Spring in the Pleasure Quarters of circa 1911 and of circa 1937, respectively, are reproduced in black and white, so nothing can be said about their tonality. In Spring Evening, the woman on the left wears a pale blue and yellow kimono, and in Spring in the Pleasure Quarters of circa 1936, she wears pale green, giving both works a bright impression. By contrast, in the present work the subdued tan color of the woman’s kimono implies the gloomy darkness of the evening. The crimson shikoki cloth, stirred by the wind from the right, adds to the vividness of the work. Although the composition is the same, all the paintings have subtly different expressions, some with a sense of melancholy, others with a sense of serenity, and the slightest difference in line can make a big difference in the mood of the painting. Shoen must have enjoyed these variations no matter how many times she painted this composition.
Uemura Shoen (nihonga painter; 1875–1949)
Nihonga painter, born in Kyoto. Shoen graduated from the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting. She studied under Suzuki Shonen, Kono Bairei and Takeuchi Seiho. Active in the Bunten exhibitions, Shoen produced many works in the contemporary bijinga (portraits of beautiful woman) genre. She was the first woman to receive the Order of Culture. The painters Uemura Shoko and Uemura Atsushi are her son and grandson, respectively.
The woman on the left is wearing a tan-colored kimono and an oshidori (“mandarin duck”) topknot hairstyle; she holds a paper lantern with the inscription nikenchaya from which the title of this painting is derived. Nikenchaya means “two teahouses,” either one on each side of a street or two buildings next to each other. Gion in Kyoto, Tamatsukuri Inari in Osaka or the Tomioka Hachiman Shrine area in Edo are famous for this type of teahouse. According to Kurokawa Doshu’s Yoshu Fushi (History of Yamashiro), the first teahouses in Kyoto were two stores in Gion and one in front of the Kitano Shrine. In the old days, two teahouses called nikenchaya faced each other on the main approach to Yasaka Shrine. One of them, the Kashiwaya, was active in uninterrupted succession to the present day and is known as the Nakamuraro. Two stone lanterns in front of the shrine gate with the inscription “nikenchaya Nakamuraro” still bear witness to the tea houses’ 480-year old history.
The scholarly compendium Shoen Uemura gashu (Kyoto Shinbunsha, 1989), a standard work of Shoen research, includes four paintings almost identical in composition to this one: Spring in the Pleasure Quarters, circa 1911; Spring Evening, circa 1936; and two works also titled Spring in the Pleasure Quarters, circa 1936 and 1937, respectively. This is telling about Shoen’s method of creating paintings: she would first produce a small sketch to outline the composition, then proceed to a full size preparatory drawing that included detailed facial expressions, gestures, backgrounds etc. After that, she would place another paper on top and trace the image for the final painting. This way, Shoen was able to use the same preparatory drawing for multiple finished paintings that would greatly resemble each other.
In Shoen Uemura gashu, the aforementioned Spring in the Pleasure Quarters of circa 1911 and of circa 1937, respectively, are reproduced in black and white, so nothing can be said about their tonality. In Spring Evening, the woman on the left wears a pale blue and yellow kimono, and in Spring in the Pleasure Quarters of circa 1936, she wears pale green, giving both works a bright impression. By contrast, in the present work the subdued tan color of the woman’s kimono implies the gloomy darkness of the evening. The crimson shikoki cloth, stirred by the wind from the right, adds to the vividness of the work. Although the composition is the same, all the paintings have subtly different expressions, some with a sense of melancholy, others with a sense of serenity, and the slightest difference in line can make a big difference in the mood of the painting. Shoen must have enjoyed these variations no matter how many times she painted this composition.
Uemura Shoen (nihonga painter; 1875–1949)
Nihonga painter, born in Kyoto. Shoen graduated from the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting. She studied under Suzuki Shonen, Kono Bairei and Takeuchi Seiho. Active in the Bunten exhibitions, Shoen produced many works in the contemporary bijinga (portraits of beautiful woman) genre. She was the first woman to receive the Order of Culture. The painters Uemura Shoko and Uemura Atsushi are her son and grandson, respectively.