Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), A Summer Morning (Natsu no asa), Edo period, early 19th century | 葛飾北斎　夏の朝　江戸時代後期　19世紀初頭

Matsuki Zen’emon (1864-1931)

A Japanese private collection

Tokubetsu ten Hokusai [Special Exhibition: Hokusai], The Museum Yamato Bunkakan, Nara, 1987, no. 32.

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihinten [Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e paintings], Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, 1989, no. 53.

Edo Tokyo yonhyakunen kinen tenrankai Edo bijutsu no shukusai [Edo-Tokyo 400th Anniversary Exhibition: Festivals of Edo Art], Edo Tokyo Museum, Tokyo, 1989, cat. no. 24.

Tokubetsu-ten Hokusai fukutsu no gajin damashi [Special Exhibition: Hokusai - The Indomitable Spirit of a Painter], Nagoya City Museum, Nagoya, 1991, cat. no. 204.

Dai Hokusai ten [Hokusai], Tobu Museum, Tokyo, Otsu Museum of History, Otsu, and the Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi, 1993, cat. no. 46.

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisakuten [Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Paintings], Kushigata Shunsen Museum, Yamanashi, 1995, no. 56.

Shukufuku sareta shiki kinsei Nihon kaiga no shoso [Celebrated Four Seasons: An Aspect of Early Modern Japanese Paintings], Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba, 1996, no. 60.

Nippon no natsu [Summer in Japan], Mitsui Memorial Museum, Tokyo, 2008, cat. no. 5.

Nihon Toyo bi no isan ten [Opening Exhibition Heritage of Beauty: Japanese, Chinese and Korean Art], Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2013, no number.

Dai ukiyo-e ten [Ukiyo-e: A Journey Through the Floating World], Edo Tokyo Museum, Tokyo, Nagoya City Museum, Nagoya, and the Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum, Yamaguchi, 2014, cat. no. 268.

Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e no sekai [The World of Ukiyo-e Paintings], Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, 2015, cat. no. 101.

Ano Utamaro ga kaettekita Fukagawa no yuki saikokai [Encore Exhibition: Kitagawa Utamaro Fukagawa's in Snow], Okada Museum of Art, 2015, Hakone, no number.

Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave, The British Museum, London, 2017, no. 11. 

5th Anniversary Exhibition. All-Stars of the Okada Collection: Masterworks of Korin, Jakuchu, Hokusai and the Ru Ware Kilns, Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2018-19, exh. no. 414 (unillustrated).

10th Anniversary Utamaro and Hokusai, Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2023, no. 17.

Nagata Seiji, "Katsushika Hokusai's Mirror-Viewing Beauty" in Kokka [Flower of the Nation], vol. 1121, Tokyo, February 1987, pp. 23-24.

Nagata Seijo, Hokusai bijutsukan [Hokusai Museum], vol 3, Bijin-ga [Beauties], Tokyo, 1990, no. 37.

Naito Masato, ‘Formal Principals in Hokusai's 'Beauty Paintings: A Look at Beauty Walking Under the Moon’, Idemitsu Museum of Art, Journal of Art Historical Research, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1995, pl. 2.

Kobayashi Tadashi, Edo no ukiyo-e [Imaging the Floating World: Essays on Ukiyo-e Prints and Paintings of the Edo Period], Tokyo, 2009, pl. 75.

Naito Masato, Hokusai nikuhitsu-ga shusei shiko no bijin-ga shunga [Masterpieces of Hokusai Paintings: Beauties and Erotic Works], Tokyo, 2018, p. 40.

Kobayashi Tadashi ed., Masterpieces of the Okada Museum of Art, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2019, p. 180-81, no. 127.

A woman regards herself in a mirror as she attends to her morning toilette. The subtle arrangement of objects around her – a striped men’s kimono hanging on a rack, a blue-and-white bowl filled with water and crowned with morning glories, a vessel containing goldish, a toothbrush and packet of tooth powder – gestures to a morning in the season of summer. Hokusai has paid particular attention to the material qualities of each object: the polished black lacquer mirror box with raised gold hiramaki-e detail for the stylised paulownia flowers among karakusa; the crackled white glaze on the large footed basin for the goldfish among water weeds, the design of white and red fringed pinks on the wood hanging rack, and the white surface of the porcelain bowl, are all rendered in minute and exacting detail.

Unlike most portraits depicting beautiful women (bijin-ga), the present model is a housewife rather than a courtesan. The man’s kimono suggests that her husband is undressed and still reclining in bed; she has risen early to apply her make-up before he awakes. The beauty’s figure, configured in the idealised eight-heads-tall proportions, is made sensual by the subtle glimpses of her nape, upper arms, and bare feet. The outline of the contours of her skin is traced in both sumi and light vermillion ink. The light checked robe that drapes the beauty’s sinuous S-curve pose is counterpointed by eccentric brushwork for the jagged and crinkled brocade sash tied around her waist.

The painting is signed Katsushika Hokusai – the name by which he is known, but for which he only used for around a decade from the latter half of his 40s to the early half of his 50s – and sealed with the artist’s red rectangular seal kimo dasoku, which translates as a tortoise’s fur and snakes’ legs, i.e. things that cannot and do not exist. Hokusai passed on the seal to his student, Katsushika Hokumei (active circa 1804–30) in the fourth month according to the lunar calendar of 1813, confirming that the present work predates this period. Hokusai was in his early fifties when he reached his peak production of bijin-ga painting around the early 1810s. His production of bijin-ga began to decline soon after, and subsequent works seldom depicted contemporary domestic fashions with this same degree of meticulousness. Later examples exhibit a more decadent aesthetic and mark a stylistic departure from the present work.¹

This work is generally considered a masterpiece of Hokusai’s beauty portraiture, particularly among those depicting ordinary housewives rather than courtesans or entertainers from the licensed quarters.

1. Masato Naito, ‘Formal Principals in Hokusai's 'Beauty Paintings: A Look at Beauty Walking Under the Moon’, Idemitsu Museum of Art, Journal of Art Historical Research, vol.1, Tokyo, 1995, pl 17.

展覽

《特別展　北斎》，大和文華館，奈良，1987年，編號32

《肉筆浮世絵名品展》，板橋区立美術館，東京，1989年，編號53

《江戸東京400年記念展覧会 江戸美術の祝祭》，東京江戸博物館，東京，1989年，編號24

《特別展北斎 不屈の画人魂》, 名古屋市博物館, 名古屋, 1991年, 編號204

《大北斎展》，東武美術館・大津歴史博物館・山口県立美術館，1993年，編號46

《肉筆浮世絵名作展》，櫛形町立春仙美術館，山梨，1995年，編號56

《祝福された四季 近世日本絵画の諸相》，千葉市立美術館，千葉，1996年，編號60

《NIPPONの夏》，三井記念美術館，東京，2008年，編號5

《日本・東洋　美の遺産展》， 岡田美術館，箱根，2013年，無編號

《大浮世絵展》，江戸東京博物館・名古屋市博物館・山口県立美術館，2014年，編號268

《肉筆浮世絵の世界　-美人画、風俗画、そして春画》，福岡市美術館，福岡，2015年，編號101

《あの歌麿が帰ってきた 深川の雪 再公開》，岡田美術館，箱根，2015年，無編號

《Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave》，大英博物館，倫敦，2017年，編號11 

《美のスターたち-光琳・若冲・北斎・汝窯など名品ぞろい-》, 岡田美術館, 箱根, 2018年, 展覽編號414（沒載圖）

《開館10周年記念　歌麿と北斎 時代を作った浮世絵師》，岡田美術館，箱根，2023年，展覽編號17（沒載圖）

出版

永田生慈，《葛飾北斎筆 鏡見美人図》，《國華》，1121號，1987年，頁23-24

永田生慈，《北斎美術館》，卷三：美人画，東京，1990年，編號37

内藤正人，《北斎美人画の造形-月下歩行美人図を一例に-》，《出光美術館研究紀要》，東京，1995年，編號2

小林忠，《江戸の浮世絵》，東京，2009年，編號75

小林忠編，《岡田美術館名品撰》，卷1，東京，2013年，編號127

内藤正人，《北斎肉筆画集成 至高の美人画 春画》，東京，2018年，頁40

小林忠編，《岡田美術館名品撰》，卷1，東京，2013年，編號127

一名女子對鏡理妝，正悉心打理晨間儀容。其周身物件的精妙布置：懸於架上的條紋男式和服、盛水青花盌中攀繞的牽牛花、養有金魚的水盆，以及牙刷與牙粉包，巧妙點出夏日清晨的時節氛圍。北齋對每件物件的材質特性投以格外關注：光澤黑漆鏡匣上以平蒔繪勾勒出唐草紋間的桐花圖樣；承載水草金魚的大型高足盆上的白色開片釉、木掛架上的白底紅邊石竹花樣，乃至瓷盌的素白表面，皆以精微嚴謹的筆觸細膩呈現。

有別於多數描繪佳麗的美人畫，本作主角實為尋常主婦而非遊女。那件男式和服暗示其夫君猶未更衣，仍慵臥榻上。美人身形依理想「八頭身」比例勾畫，從微露的後頸、上臂與赤足中流瀉出婉約韻致。肌膚輪廓線條兼用墨色與淡朱墨勾勒。覆於佳人婉轉S形曲線的淺格紋和服，與腰間繁複褶皺的腰帶形成對比，後者以奇崛筆觸繪出鋸齒狀起伏紋理。

畫作署款「葛飾北齋」，此名號雖廣為人知，然其使用時期僅約十載（自四十餘歲後半至五十餘歲前半）。鈐藝術家朱文方印「龜毛蛇足」，詼諧隱晦地暗喻「不存在之物」。北齋於1813年農曆四月將此印傳予門人葛飾北明（約活躍於1804-1830年間），足證本作早於此時期。北齋約五十歲初時臻至美人畫創作巔峰，此後產量漸衰，晚期作品鮮少能如本作般以同等縝密筆觸描繪當世家居風情¹。

本作普遍被視為北齋美人肖像畫之瑰寶，尤以描繪平凡主婦而非遊廓藝伎著稱。

1. 內藤正人，《Formal Principals in Hokusai's 'Beauty Paintings: A Look at Beauty Walking Under the Moon》，《出光美術館研究紀要》，第1卷，東京，1995年，圖版17。