Utamaro

In 1804, at the height of his success, the artist Kitagawa Utamaro was put under house arrest for fifty days for making prints of the military ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi enjoying the pleasures of the “floating world.”


A lifetime’s diligent study

Will not suffice the lover or the artist.

We speak not of lust and commerce,

But of glamour,romance and desire.

The movements of brush and fan

Nuance the night with mysteries;

Which touch is more tender,

The geisha’s or the painter’s?

As a dragonfly’s clinging to a stalk,

So a courtesan’s motions I study.

All things are imagined,

Or they do not exist at all.

Midnight is the hour of the rat,

When a lighted taper in the hand

Throws shadows on a screen;

The red folds of the silk

On an outstretched arm

And the sake cup, deep and dark.

The long stem of a narcissus

Leads the eye to the petals;

Then devotion’s gestures sway all

Until the dawn bell’s call.

In the hour of the dragon,

When the daylight world awakes,

The night people gladly retire,

Weary,and always a little sad.