Minneapolis Institute of Art

People at a festival

Gion Seitoku

Date

1790s

Medium

Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This painting represents the bustle of a festival, capturing the joyful loosening of social restrictions fueled by music and drink. A woman holds a sun umbrella next to a boy making faces; both are surrounded by forceful men with tattoos. Her heavily powdered face with bulbous nose and large green lower lip represents the typical characteristics of a beauty painted by Gion Seitoku. Seitoku is particularly known for making realistic portraits of geisha (dancers) in Kyoto’s popular entertainment district, Gion, which is famous for the Gion Festival every summer. He uses shading to draw the focus to the physicality of these interactions: the men’s muscles ripple and the lady’s bunched kimono suggests a voluptuous form beneath it. Japan, Asia

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