A Beauty

Also known as: Man Strolling with a Boy Carrying Flowering Branch

About the Artwork

Many ukiyo-e paintings and prints focus on bijin (美人), or “beautiful people.” Female courtesans and entertainers were the main draw in the pleasure district of Edo (now Tokyo), but young men were also available. The poem here reads as follows: "The full blooming cherry / is not the only flower worth mentioning. / The color of the young plum tree / blooms as well." The full blooming cherry is a metaphor for mature women, and the plum for young men.

Inscriptions

Artist's signature and two seals middle right side

Provenance

(Felice Fedder Oriental Art, Inc., New York, NY, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith) ?–1985: The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1985–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988). Ukiyo-e: The Floating World Revisited. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 2-April 3, 1994). Visions of Japan: Prints and Paintings from Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2004-April 10, 2005). Japan’s Floating World 日本の浮世. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 8-October 9, 2022).

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

Quick Overview

Artist: Fujimaro (Japanese, d. 1830)
Date: c. 1810
Medium: hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions: Overall: 180.4 x 48.3 cm (71 x 19 in.); Painting only: 94 x 31 cm (37 x 12 3/16 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Japanese Art
Credit line: The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
Accession no.: 1985.256

Open-access museum record · AT-00009580