Takigawa of the Ogiya Pleasure House

Utagawa Toyokuni I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Robed in a splendid floral kimono, the famous courtesan, Takigawa of the Ogiya Pleasure House, sits before a hanging scroll portrait of Ono no Komachi in her late years. Ono no Komachi, a great poet of the Heian period, was admired for her beauty. Her legendary decline into decrepit old age was taken as a paradigm for the Buddhist concept of the ephemerality of life and its pleasures. Toyokuni shows the two famous beauties—one his contemporary and the other her predecessor by many centuries—facing each other in mirror image. This striking juxtaposition accentuates the dramatic contrast between them; Takigawa appears in the full bloom of her beauty, emphasized by the vivacious wildflowers which flow through her kimono, while the old woman Ono no Komachi leans on her staff among drab ditch reeds in the colorless hanging scroll. Thus, the great beauty of Takagawa is threatened by a pungent memento mori.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art