Court Lady Serving Sake to Otomo no Yakamochi (717?-785), with poems by Bunkeisha Shiomichi, Bungaen Yukimaru and Bunbunsha c. early 19th century

Curator: Here we have Kubo Shunman's print, "Court Lady Serving Sake to Otomo no Yakamochi," featuring added poems. Editor: It's quite delicate, isn't it? The lines are so fine, the colors muted. Almost like a whisper of a scene. Curator: Indeed. Shunman, active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, places this imagined scene of hospitality within a broader cultural context. The materiality of the paper, the woodblock printing process – these elements speak to a specific moment of artistic production and distribution. Editor: I’m intrigued by the sake serving ritual. How does this connect to labor, class, and the consumption of luxury goods in Shunman's era? And is it luxury, really, if it's captured on a mass-produced print? Curator: The image certainly evokes questions about the nature of cultural production itself. Perhaps the mass production democratizes access to such imagery? Editor: Perhaps, or it commodifies it. Still, there’s a quiet charm to the scene. The artist uses line and color to elevate the scene in an appealing manner. Curator: A fascinating interplay of culture, class and context. Editor: Yes, an echo of hospitality rendered in ink and paper.