Playing the "Hand Game" (c. 1760): Art, History and Details

Playing the "Hand Game" (c. 1760) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hasegawa Yasumasa (Japanese).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This scene depicts three people playing a game in which three players make hand gestures simultaneously. The relationship among the gestures determines the winner. Known as hand games, during the eighteenth century they were popular in Japan among courtesans. In this version, the contestants use both hands, indicating a special variation such as the fox hand game, which features gestures for a fox, a village leader, and a hunter.

Object facts

• Title: Playing the "Hand Game"
• Date: c. 1760
• Creator attribution: Hasegawa Yasumasa (Japanese)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 39 x 55.3 cm (15 3/8 x 21 3/4 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.258

Collection credit

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lane, Richard. “Ukiyo-E Paintings Abroad. A Review Article.” Monumenta Nipponica 23, no. 1/2 (1968): 190–207.
• “Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292–295.
• Jenkins, Donald. “Paintings of the Floating World.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 244–278.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.