View from Shichirigahama Beach
On View In:
Gallery 239
Artist:   Hokusai Katsushika  
Title:   View from Shichirigahama Beach  
Date:   1820-1833  
Medium:   Woodblock print (surimono); ink and color on paper  
Dimensions:   8 3/16 x 7 1/4 in. (20.8 x 18.4 cm) (image, sheet)  
Credit Line:   Gift of Louis W. Hill, Jr.  
Location:   Gallery 239  

Located about thirty miles south from the city of Edo city (today's Tokyo), Shichirigahama Beach affords a scenic view of the Pacific Ocean as well as the dramatic promontory of Enoshima. Because of its relative proximity to Edo, the area had long been a popular vacation spot for the city's inhabitants. The two women depicted here are likely such visitors from Edo. Both wear ageb?shi, a type of simple headdress originally used upper-class women to protect their oiled coiffures from dust and wind when traveling. By the late 18th century, ageb?shi had been adopted by fashion-conscious women on all levels of society to protect their hairdos. Holding long thin smoking pipes, another fashionable accessory, these women seem to be traveling in style.

Artist/Creator(s)     
Name:   Katsushika, Hokusai  
Nationality:   Japanese  
Life Dates:   Japanese, 1760 - 1849  
 

Object Description  
  
Inscriptions:   2 poems (kyo_ka) ro_ Iistu sha(sketched)  
Classification:   Prints  
Creation Place:   Asia, Japan, , ,  
Accession #:   81.133.159  
Owner:   The Minneapolis Institute of Arts