The Card Game

Description

This scene is a wealthy home in Edo. To the left, four young men play a game of cards called karuta, which is still popular in modern Japan. It is played with two decks of one hundred cards each. In one version, the one hundred poet cards, each bearing a portrait of a poet, are spread out before the players. A moderator holds the poem cards and selects a line or phrase from a poem. Players must try to be the first to recognize the author and pick up the face card. The game winner holds the most poet cards at the end.

Provenance

Yamanaka & Company; sold to Kate Sturges Buckingham (1858–1937), Chicago, 1919; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1925.

The Card Game

Utagawa Toyokuni I

c. 1790

Accession Number

21515

Medium

Color woodblock print; oban triptych

Dimensions

37 × 74.3 cm (14 5/8 × 29 5/16 in.); Left sheet: 37 × 25.3 cm (14 5/8 × 10 in.); Center sheet: 37.1 × 25.2 cm (14 5/8 × 9 15/16 in.); Right sheet: 37 × 25.2 cm (14 5/8 × 9 15/16 in.); Mat: 57.2 × 95.3 cm (22 1/2 × 37 1/2 in.)

Classification

woodblock print

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Clarence Buckingham Collection