Tsuragamae (Countenance): Ukiyo-e Painter Suzuki Harunobu and Naturalist Hiraga Gennai 

Tsuragamae is a series that became artist Kataoka Tamako’s lifework from the age of 61 to 100. It was an attempt to depict people by focusing on the structure of their faces (which in Japanese she describes as their tsuragamae). The subjects of this work are two people who were active in the middle of the Edo Period (1603–1868). The screen on the right shows the multitalented Hiraga Gennai, who was well versed in Chinese medicine and Western studies, and who also produced popular novels and Western-style paintings. On the left is Suzuki Harunobu, an ukiyo-e artist whose depictions of androgynous characters and fantastical scenes were widely acclaimed. The two are thought to have lived in the same town and were known to one another. No contemporary portraits of Harunobu existed, and so Kataoka apparently based this portrait on an illustration that was presumed to be of him in one of Gennai’s books.
(HIBINO Miyon)