Woman Playing the Shamisen

Born in 1855 in Edo (now Tokyo), the second son of painter Goseda Horyu, Yoshimatsu began studying under the British artist, illustrator and cartoonist Charles Wirgman at age ten. He sold oil and watercolor paintings in Yokohama to foreigners visiting Japan. Yoshimatsu won the highest award in the Western-style painting category at the First National Industrial Exhibition in 1877, and moved to France in 1880. The following year, he became the first Japanese artist selected for exhibition in the French Salon. This watercolor depicts a gidayu (chanted narration with shamisen accompaniment) performance. It captures the people of Yokohama and Tokyo and the surrounding atmosphere in the artist’s distinctive style, characterized by the bleeding effect of watercolors. Meticulous details, such as the lowered curtain and the backdrop, suggest that this painting is one of the Yokohama-e (Yokohama pictures) that Yoshimatsu produced primarily in his later years. (J.A.)