大阪 大和屋笑鶴

About this photo

She stands beside a bamboo fence, facing forward. White flowers peek over the top of the fence, and thin grasses can be seen at her feet. Her kimono has a fine pattern, a dark cloth lies thickly layered at her collar, and her obi is dark too. The name under the photo reads "Osaka, Yamatoya Shokaku."

Bamboo fences fall broadly into two types: sukashi-gaki, open fences you can see through, and shahei-gaki, screening fences that block the view. The fence in this photo is a sukashi-gaki, with the background visible through the gaps in the bamboo. The basic sukashi-gaki is said to be the yotsume-gaki ("four-eyes fence"). Horizontal and vertical bamboo cross each other, and the gaps look like square eyes, which gives it its name. It is also said to be indispensable in tea gardens, and the bamboo is tied with a knot called otoko-musubi ("man's knot"). In this photo from the 1903 (Meiji 36) photo album Kyoto Osaka Imayo Bijin Fuzoku (Beauties of Today in Kyoto and Osaka), the fence and flowers make it look as if it might have been taken in a garden. The reading of the name is our best guess.

Glossary