• Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
Woman reading a letter from the series <i>Ukiyo jūroku musashi</i> 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)
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Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

Woman reading a letter from the series Ukiyo jūroku musashi 'Sixteen Musashi Games of the Floating World' (浮世十六むさし)

Print

ca 1822
9.875 in x 14.125 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
五渡亭国貞画
Publisher: Enomotoya Kichibei
(Marks 054 - seal 01-053)
Censor seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ritsumeikan University - in black and white
British Museum
Ishikawa Prefectual Museum of Art - another print from this series
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University "Jūroku musashi. Popular game played on a checkerboard with 16 pieces (warriors) and a main piece called the benkei (after a famous twelfth-century monk-warrior). The goal is to push the benkei into a corner and keeping it from moving. The benkei, however, can “capture” the opposing player's pieces when they are in certain positions near it. This game, popular in the seventeenth century, is rarely played today."

Quoted from: Japan Encyclopedia by Louis Frédéric, p. 438.

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There are at least four other prints from this series in the collection of Ritsumeikan University. They are all illustrated in black and white.

The Kunisada Project in Germany believes these prints date from 1818 and may have totaled 16 different images.

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Illustrated in black and white in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections: British Museum III, supervised by Muneshige Narazaki, Kodansha Ltd, 1988, #13, page 167.
Enomotoya Kichibei (榎本屋吉兵衛) (publisher)
beautiful women (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)