京都祇園 中島つゆ

About this photo

On her lap she holds a tsuzumi, a hand drum. Holes for the cords and flower-like decorations run all around the rim of the drumhead. She wears kanzashi hair ornaments on both sides of her hair, her kimono is scattered with round flower patterns, and a cloth with a floral design hangs over the back of the chair she sits on. The name under the photo reads "Kyoto Gion, Nakajima Tsuyu." It is one photo from the album Kyoto Osaka Imayo Bijin Fuzoku (Beauties of Today in Kyoto and Osaka, 1903).

It is not known whether the drum in the photo is a kotsuzumi, but the kotsuzumi, the best known kind of tsuzumi, has horsehide heads stretched over both ends of a body hollowed out of cherry wood, all laced together with hemp cords called shirabeo. It is held in the left hand, rested on the right shoulder and struck with the right hand. The player changes the sound by tightening and loosening the cords, and keeps the skins moist by breathing on them to keep the sound right. It is an instrument used in hayashi, the musical accompaniment of Noh. The reading of the name is our best guess.

Glossary