Messenger Delivering a Letter

Description

This two-fold screen with large figures is a splendid example of early ukiyo-e painting, a new style of Japanese genre painting that emerged in the Kan’ei era. A festoon of fern leaves hangs across the room, and indicates New Year’s celebrations are underway, while a lacquered vanity table with a gold pattern, at the left, suggests a courtesan’s private quarters. The room belongs to the elegant, expertly coiffed courtesan at back who reclines in a relaxed pose on green tatami mats, her weight supported by a kidney-shaped arm rest. A long tobacco pipe dangles from her left hand as her attention is turned diagonally across the room at her young handmaid. The maid, dressed in richly patterned robes, stretches across the tatami and holds a rolled up letter of New Year’s greetings as she speaks to a second courtesan. Seated with her back toward us, this younger courtesan wears her hair in disarray falling about her shoulders. She is seated facing the main courtesan while leaning back on her left arm to hear what the maid is saying.

In the background, sliding doors are decorated in the conventional pattern of “scattered fans and squares.” The square on the left-most panel of the doors depicts a scene from the Ukifune chapter of the Heian period (794–1185) classic the Tale of Genji. One interpretation of the action in the screen hinges upon this painting within the painting. The main courtesan and her companion, seated with her back to us, are posed in reverse facing each other. The interplay between these two figures, punctuated by the handmaid delivering the letter, may be reference to an event in the Ukifune chapter. The courtesan eyes the handmaid’s delivery, but the position of her face within the overall composition of the screen is paired in line with the painted square affixed to the sliding doors. The painted scene in the square is traditionally understood to represent the content of the Ukifune chapter as painted albums by Tosa School artists. The scene depicts Ukifune in a boat with her lover Niou, crossing the Uji River. The overall action in the screen resonates with the Ukifune chapter. A pivotal moment in the chapter is when letter bearers of two lovers of the ill-fated Ukifune, Niou and Kaoru, cross paths by chance. Because a note attached to a gift delivered at New Year’s ultimately revealed the sequestered Ukifune’s whereabouts to her lover Niou, it has also been suggested that the Ukifune scene reinforces the New Year’s theme of the screen.

This screen has been associated with the figures and forms of another monument of early ukiyo-e painting, an influential six-fold screen of slightly earlier date in the Hikone Collection. Further, it has been observed that the Princeton screen mobilizes conventions unique to Japanese genre painting of the Kan’ei era in that it generates a pseudo-narrative interest through its placement and posing of figures. In particular, the figures of the handmaid delivering the letter and the lounging courtesan call forth not only the generic image of a courtesan receiving an amorous letter from a client, but also the traditional iconography of the noble recluse, who is often depicted in a similar pose to that of the main courtesan of the Princeton screen.

The opulent surroundings in this representation of the lifestyles of high ranking courtesans are typical of ukiyo-e, which was stimulated and supported by the growing wealth of town dwellers during a time of peace and economic revival. The screen’s lacquered frame incorporates a checked pattern in mother-of-pearl, and although it is not original to the screen, it was clearly chosen to amplify the sense of luxury and decadence of the courtesan’s inner chambers.