Who painted 八百屋お七寺小姓吉三郎|O Shichi and Kichisaburo?

八百屋お七寺小姓吉三郎|O Shichi and Kichisaburo was painted by Kitagawa Utamaro in 1780.

Where can I see 八百屋お七寺小姓吉三郎|O Shichi and Kichisaburo?

八百屋お七寺小姓吉三郎|O Shichi and Kichisaburo is held by Metropolitan Museum of Art.

What movement is 八百屋お七寺小姓吉三郎|O Shichi and Kichisaburo?

八百屋お七寺小姓吉三郎|O Shichi and Kichisaburo is associated with Romanticism.

Artwork

八百屋お七寺小姓吉三郎|O Shichi and Kichisaburo

Kitagawa Utamaro , 1780

八百屋お七寺小姓吉三郎|O Shichi and Kichisaburo is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Kitagawa Utamaro. It dates from 1780 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About this work

Utamaro freezes the moment before everything changes, using soft colors and fine lines to make the scene feel quiet and tense.

A young woman in a patterned kimono leans close to a young man in a dark robe. Their faces almost touch, but their eyes don’t meet, hers look down, his gaze drifts away.

This print shows a real story from 1683: a greengrocer’s daughter, O Shichi, fell for a temple page, Kichisaburo. The law at the time punished women harshly for even small crimes, and O Shichi’s fate became a warning. Utamaro freezes the moment before everything changes, using soft colors and fine lines to make the scene feel quiet and tense.

To see how other artists told stories in prints, look up Kitagawa Utamaro.

Technique & Style

The print portrays the courtesan Oshichi and the young page Kichisaburo rendered in traditional ukiyo-e style using ink and color on paper, a format characteristic of nishiki-e hashira-e compositions. The work measures 62.9 cm in height by 13.5 cm in width, reflecting the vertical format typical of such prints. Utamaro employs delicate line work and flat areas of color to convey narrative detail and emotional nuance, emphasizing the figures' gestures and decorative elements such as the comb and hairpin.

History & Provenance

The work was created in 1780 by Kitagawa Utamaro as a woodblock print depicting Yaoya Oshichi, a woman associated with a comb and kanzashi. It is classified as a genre scene within the ukiyo-e tradition and was produced as a hashira-e, a type of pillar print. The print measures 13.5 centimeters in width and 62.9 centimeters in height, and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Overview

Kitagawa Utamaro’s woodblock print, created around 1780, portrays a fleeting encounter between a young woman and a young man. Rendered in ink and color on paper, the image belongs to the genre‑scene tradition of Edo‑period ukiyo‑e, focusing on everyday moments rather than formal portraiture.

Subject & Meaning

The scene references the historical tale of Yaoya Oshichi, a greengrocer’s daughter who, in 1683, fell in love with a temple page named Kichisaburo. Their close proximity, her head bowed, his gaze averted, captures a moment of secret affection that would later serve as a cautionary example of the severe penalties imposed on women for minor transgressions.

Context

During the early 1680s, Japanese law prescribed harsh punishments for women involved in even minor offenses, a social backdrop that amplified the moral weight of Oshichi’s story. Utamaro’s depiction reflects contemporary interest in dramatizing such cautionary tales for a broad audience.