The Courtesan Umegawa and Chubei of the Courier Firm

Artist: Kitagawa Utamaro 1798-1799 Woodblock print on paper Height: 38.60 centimetres Width: 25 centimetres

Utamaro works to convey the power of tragic love stories in his series True Feelings Compared, which this particular woodblock print is from. Taken from a story that graced the Kabuki theatre during the Edo period, this close-up ôkubi-e reflects a couple from shinjû-mono, a Kabuki theatre play about double suicide between lovers. On the left sits the Yoshiwara courtesan, Umegawa, biting a cloth wrapped around her head to conceal her identity and suppress her emotion, with the courier Chubei nestled closely on her right, the two intimately standing underneath the framing of an umbrella. A true sense of love and connection is conveyed through the tight composition, allowing the viewer to be drawn into the love story before the impending doom that will strike the couple as Chubei steals money to free Umegawa and they move on the road into hiding, inevitably being captured and committing double suicide in order to stay together after death.