Five Beauties

Teisai Hokuba

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The two women on the left play a hand-gesture game called kitsune-ken (fox fists) in which gestures representing a supernatural fox (kitsune) defeat those of a village head (shōya), who defeats a hunter (ryōshi), who in turn defeats the fox. An apprentice courtesan serves tea while a high-ranking courtesan makes a grand entrance. A feast of sashimi and other delicacies sits nearby. Teisai Hokuba, one of the earliest and most talented pupils of Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), focused his efforts on surimono (privately commissioned woodblock prints), book illustration, and deluxe paintings of beauties like this one. His signature indicates that he was seventy years old when he painted it, near the end of his long career.

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