An Oiran Standing, a Pipe in Her right Hand, and Turning to Look Behind over Her Shoulder 1695 - 1715

Editor: So, this is "An Oiran Standing, a Pipe in Her right Hand, and Turning to Look Behind over Her Shoulder" by Torii Kiyomasu I, dating from 1695 to 1715. It's a woodblock print – striking, almost graphic, with those bold lines. What do you make of it? Curator: It’s as if Kiyomasu has captured a fleeting moment, hasn't he? The oiran, caught in this backward glance, almost seems startled. What stories, I wonder, do those eyes hold? Ukiyo-e, like this, often presents us with the ‘floating world’ – the ephemeral pleasures, the theater, the courtesans…But there's always that subtle undercurrent of something deeper, don't you think? A kind of melancholy. Look at the precise lines; they define the fabric’s intricate patterns and somehow intensify the human form beneath it all. Don’t you just wonder what caused her to turn? Editor: Melancholy, that's interesting. I was so focused on the strong lines and patterns. So, the print is about capturing a specific type of beauty standard, but suggesting transience too? Curator: Exactly. It is about that dance between permanence, in the art form, and the fleeting beauty that it captures. Ukiyo-e was often commissioned; prints like this would circulate among the merchant class, a snapshot of desirable culture available to many. It democratized art, in a way. Each element carries significance: the pipe she holds, her elaborate kimono. They speak of status, leisure, and the performance of beauty itself. Are we looking at the art, or is the oiran performing a piece for the art? Editor: Wow, I'd never considered that layered reading. Thanks for sharing your perspective. Curator: My pleasure. It's in the looking, and then looking again, that art truly breathes. I always think we take a small part of it with us, changed slightly, you know?