Image: Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, Tokyo
The Ōta Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo will present Torii Gonjo’s 'Morning Sleeping Hair' from September 1 as part of '50th Anniversary Commemoration: Torii Gonjo, Kabuki Paintings and New Woodblock Prints'. The museum says the work is a representative beauty painting by Gonjo, and notes its delicate carving as one of its defining features.
According to the museum’s exhibition information, 'Morning Sleeping Hair' was originally planned for a limited run of 100 copies. Before the edition could be fully distributed, however, the Metropolitan Police confiscated the work after 70 copies had been sold, and it was subsequently banned. The exhibition will display the surviving work within a survey focused on Torii Gonjo’s kabuki paintings and new woodblock prints.
The presentation situates Gonjo within the wider history of ukiyo-e and commercial print culture, where edition size, subject matter and official regulation could all shape an artwork’s circulation. In this case, the museum highlights both the technical refinement of the print and the circumstances that interrupted its publication. Those details place 'Morning Sleeping Hair' in the context of a production history that was unusual even by the standards of Japanese printmaking, where publishers, artists and authorities often interacted closely.
The Ōta Memorial Museum of Art is a Tokyo institution dedicated to ukiyo-e and related print traditions. Its focus makes it a fitting venue for an exhibition centered on Torii Gonjo, an artist associated here with kabuki paintings and new woodblock prints, and for a work that the museum has identified as an important example of beauty painting. The anniversary framing suggests an effort to bring together different facets of Gonjo’s practice under one exhibition title rather than isolate a single print in a stand-alone display.
The museum has set the exhibition for September 2026, running from September 1 through September 30 at the Ōta Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan. 'Morning Sleeping Hair' will be on view during that period as part of the anniversary presentation.
