МАЭ № 13-34/18

Representative of Bride’s Family Greets Bridegroom’s Family.Series “the Life of the Japanese”.

Japanese

1820-s

silk textile, Japanese watercolours, ink, Japanese washigami paper, glue

35.2 × 46.5

List features a visit of a representative of the bride’s family to the family of the groom before the wedding ceremony. The nagamochi palanquin contains a tsunodare tub with sake sent from the bride’s family to the groom’s as a wedding gift. The scene is depicted humorously. The master of the house is performing the obligatory ceremonial gestures, but the servants seem totally oblivious. One of the oblong chests is hidden in the shadow of the lantern. The nagamochi palanquin is decorated with the bride’s family crest, a five-petaled Chinese bellflower with five swords. In painting No. 13-34/39(18) the characters jingi (“humanity and justice”, in other words "duty") appear on the folding screen. On the folding screen in the previous painting is decorated with a dragon. List No. 13-34/39(18) is clearly a disciple’s piece. Note, in particular, the absence of depth in the space on the right. This is because the student who painted it was unable to reproduce the perspective seen in the background. Note, too, how clumsily the round stones in the paved road are depicted on this page.

Ethnographic drawing