Description
Interesting double-page woodblock printed illustration of the abuna-e (あぶな絵) type attributed to the famous artist Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) and depicting an unusual subject: a male lover who is shaving the nape of the neck of a beauty who, after a bath, is sitting in front of a mirror.
The work is taken from vol. 1 (上) of an erotic book produced in the 1840s by the publisher Kinseido (金勢堂), entitled “Spring Poems for Pine, Bamboo and Plum” (春詠松竹梅) and signed by the illustrator Kairo Doketsu (開樓童傑), probably a pseudonym of Kunisada, and by the writer Kaikosha Iroteru (開好舎色照), a possible pseudonym of Utagawa Yoshiteru (歌川芳輝).
The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙), despite the right signs of aging, is in overall very good condition.
