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A Dancer Performing Heron Maiden

Photo: Colleen Kollar Zorn

A Dancer Performing Heron Maiden

ca. 1766-68

Suzuki Harunobu

Japanese, 1724 - 1770

The presence of a samisen, a three-stringed instrument, in a print typically implies a geisha or her apprentice, the geiko. This charming scene highlights the role of girls and women as artist-entertainers in the pleasure quarters. In theory at least, these young girls and their slightly older counterparts, the geisha, were performers, not courtesans.

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Sheet size: 8 7/8 x 12 3/4 in. (22.5 x 32.4 cm)
Gift of Mary and Allan Kollar, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2013.31.3
Provenance: [Egenolf Gallery, Burbank, California]; purchased from gallery by Allan Kollar, Seattle, Washington, 2006; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2013
Photo: Colleen Kollar Zorn
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Fleeting Beauty: Japanese Woodblock Prints, Apr. 1 - July 4, 2010. Text by Catherine Roche. Cat. no. 11, reproduced pp. 14, 34.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Renegade Edo: Japanese Prints and Toulouse-Lautrec, July 21 - Dec. 3, 2023. Text by Xiaojin Wu. No cat. no., pp. 36, 100, reproduced pl. 9.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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