Dancers on stage, by Yashima Gakutei

An image of Dancers on stage. Gakutei, Yashima (Japanese, 1786(?)-1868). Surimono. Colour print from woodblocks, with metallic pigment and blind embossing, circa 1820-circa 1823. Ukiyo-e. Poetry by Suihotei Komatsu and Hisakataya(?). Notes: From the five-sheet series Hisakaya furuichi odori (The Dance at Furuichi for the Hisakataya Group) which forms a continuous view of nine geisha and a buffoon dancing on a wooden causeway at right angles to the main stage. The geisha are from the Gissharo (‘ox-drawn carriage’) house in the town of Furuichi, located between the shrines of Yamada and Uji. It was a favourite stopping place for travellers making the pilgrimage to the Great Shrines of Ise, which became very popular in the 1820s. The emblem of the house, a carriage-wheel, appears in the prints. In the first poem the word for ‘flowers’ means both ‘cherry blossoms’ and ‘beautiful women’: ‘Evening at Furuichi is like the Yoshino Mountains; the sight of the flowers is like a thousand gold coins.’ ‘As the maidens dance, will the breeze also pirouette among the cherry blossoms?’

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Dancers on stage. Gakutei, Yashima (Japanese, 1786(?)-1868). Surimono. Colour print from woodblocks, with metallic pigment and blind embossing, circa 1820-circa 1823. Ukiyo-e. Poetry by Suihotei Komatsu and Hisakataya(?). Notes: From the five-sheet series Hisakaya furuichi odori (The Dance at Furuichi for the Hisakataya Group) which forms a continuous view of nine geisha and a buffoon dancing on a wooden causeway at right angles to the main stage. The geisha are from the Gissharo (‘ox-drawn carriage’) house in the town of Furuichi, located between the shrines of Yamada and Uji. It was a favourite stopping place for travellers making the pilgrimage to the Great Shrines of Ise, which became very popular in the 1820s. The emblem of the house, a carriage-wheel, appears in the prints. In the first poem the word for ‘flowers’ means both ‘cherry blossoms’ and ‘beautiful women’: ‘Evening at Furuichi is like the Yoshino Mountains; the sight of the flowers is like a thousand gold coins.’ ‘As the maidens dance, will the breeze also pirouette among the cherry blossoms?’

Image data

Accession Number: P.283-1937
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/20.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H4D-31
Photographer name: Sam Cole
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 913 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 1.11MB
Exposure time: 1/250
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 20/1
Captured: 2017:09:04 10:19:35

Key words

19th Century acting actor actors blind embossing colour printing costume dance dancers dancing Edo Period embossed embossing female Fitz_PDP Furuichi Gakutei geisha hair hairstyle Japan Japanese kanzashi hairpin karazuri ladies lady lantern metallic pigment paper lantern performance performer performing pigment poem poetry poets print role stage surimono theatre theatrical ukiyo-e woman women woodblock woodcut Yashima Gakutei

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Dancers on stage, by Yashima Gakutei"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-218361 Accessed: 2024-11-25 00:23:01

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-218361
            |title=Dancers on stage, by Yashima Gakutei
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-25 00:23:01|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-218361

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp82/P_283_1937_1_201709_sjc288_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Dancers on stage"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Dancers on stage, by Yashima Gakutei</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>