Girls Entertained by Performers, from the illustrated book Flowers of the Four Seasons

Girls Entertained by Performers, from the illustrated book Flowers of the Four Seasons

Kitagawa Utamaro

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Theatrical performances are paradigms of people watching other people. There is a division of roles as well as a division of space. The actors move about a prescribed area, while the audience remains passively confined to another. This structure is reflected in ukiyo-e prints in which viewers are often physically separated from the objects of their gaze. They look down from balconies, peer through blinds and windows, and peek from behind screens and curtains. In this print, from a book illrstrated by Utamaro, young women, in imitation of courtly customs, watch traveling performers through the bamboo blinds of a folding screen. the unusual side view places us at a point equidistant from the audience and the performers. Since both groups are partially obscured by screens, Utamaro relegates us to the position of an outside observer. A courtesan in an elegant dress stands between the two groups. The cranes and the cloud in the screen behind her complete a circle that connects her with the performers, but the cascading folds of her robe unite with the dress of a seated girl, perhaps indicating a dual role on her part of entertaining and being entertained.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Girls Entertained by Performers, from the illustrated book Flowers of the Four SeasonsGirls Entertained by Performers, from the illustrated book Flowers of the Four SeasonsGirls Entertained by Performers, from the illustrated book Flowers of the Four SeasonsGirls Entertained by Performers, from the illustrated book Flowers of the Four SeasonsGirls Entertained by Performers, from the illustrated book Flowers of the Four Seasons

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.