Couple spying on a courtesan reading a love letter, from Chushingura (5758877659), Torii Kiyonaga

Accession number: 1957. 93 display artist: torii kiyonaga display title: "couple spying on a courtesan reading a love letter, from chushingura" creation date: 1779 medium: woodblock height: 28 1/4 in. Width: 4 7/8 in. Display dimensions: 28 1/4 in. X 4 7/8 in. (71. 76 cm x 12. 38 cm) credit line: bequest of mrs. Cora timken burnett label copy: "here the artist makes ingenious use of the long vertical format of this pillar print (hashira-e), which was made for hanging on pillars of domestic spaces. Kiyonaga parodies the scene in act vii of the play in which a spy and the prostitute okaru read the contents of a samurai retainers secret scroll. A prostitute stands in for the samurai in the center of the composition; a male customer takes the place of the prostitute okaru, and instead of a male enemy spy under the veranda, there is a servant girl. This scene from the play was so well-known by the people of edo at the end of the eighteenth century that everyone would have understood the humorous implications of these substitutions. " collection: the san diego museum of art.