"Three Women Playing Musical Instruments," Katsushika Ōi, 1850.

Katsushika Ōi (c. 1800 - c. 1866) was the daughter of the great Hokusai and a very talented painter in her own right. Little about her life is known, not even her exact dates. It is known that she married unhappily in 1824, and divorced her husband three years later. She never remarried, remaining with her father to tend to his workshop and work alongside him.

She was especially talented in the bijin-ga genre, or "paintings of beautiful women," of which this is an example. We have three ladies (one with her back turned to us, a daring stylistic choice for the time) playing assorted traditional Japanese instruments( (sorry, my education doesn't cover what these may be). I'm not sure if these are meant to be geishas or court ladies or what, but it is kind of charming to see these ladies sitting and playing music, facing each other rather than an audience....which makes me lean toward them being court ladies, playing for the joy of it.

From the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

#Art #AsianArt #JapaneseArt #WomenAritsts #KatsushikaOi #Ukiyo_e #Bijin_ga #Music