Posted by John Fiorillo on April 02, 1999 at 00:40:31:
In Reply to: Utamaro posted by Bethe on April 01, 1999 at 20:48:39:
Bethe,
There is only one "index" on Utamaro that I know of, namely, ‘Kitagawa Utamaro sakuhin mokuroku’ ("Catalog of the Works of Kitagawa Utamaro"). This very sparsely described listing appeared in volume 3 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) of ‘Ukiyo-e shuka’ ("Collected Flowers of Ukiyo-e"; Tokyo: Shôgakkan 1978), which was part of a series of 18 volumes on important collections of ukiyo-e published 1977-83. Unfortunately, it is entirely in Japanese and is unillustrated, plus the descriptions are only generic ones (such as "two women and a child"). It does include series and print titles where applicable, as well as publishers, so the prints can be identified in that manner. Still, it must be used with caution, as there are occasional errors in the descriptions.
The largest number of illustrated prints by Utamaro in a single volume can be found in Shibui, K.: ‘Utamaro zuten 13: Utamaro’ ("Celebrated illustrations of ukiyo-e: Utamaro"; Tokyo: Kazama Shobô, 1964). Unfortunately, the illustrations are very small, poor-quality black & white pictures, and about 40% of Utamaro’s works are not included in the volume. It is also out of print and difficult to find.
The best work I know of about Utamaro in English (actually bilingual, as it includes Japanese text) is ‘The Passionate Art of Utamaro’ by Asano and Clark (2 vols., 1995; published in two bilingual editions by British Museum Press and Asahi Shimbun). I believe the British edition is sold out, but the Japanese edition may still be available (identical with the British edition except for the expurgation of a few ‘shunga’). It includes about 500 prints (plus some books and albums), all illustrated in color and all described, many in extensive detail.
If you cannot locate these books, perhaps you can try describing your print completely and carefully, and then I could try to find it for you when time permits.
John