Japan, Woman jumping from the balcony of Kiyomizu-dera Edo period

Japanese scroll painting – Woman jumping from the balcony of Kiyomizu-dera temple, Edo period
Ink and pigments on paper
Painting dimensions: 125 × 52 cm
Total scroll dimensions: 193 × 65.5 cm
Tomobako

This Japanese scroll painting, created during the Edo period, depicts a woman in a kimono caught in mid-air, just after jumping from the famous balcony of the Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto. With her legs folded, she holds an upturned parasol—a symbol of protection that has become useless. Blindfolded, she surrenders to the void with an expression of calm resignation. Her wide-open kimono reveals her body, partially concealed by her foot in a final gesture of modesty. The composition is exquisite, blending discreet eroticism, dramatic tension, and silent poetry.

This rare subject illustrates the Japanese proverb (Kiyomizu no butai kara tobioriru) – "jump from the Kiyomizu stage," a still-resonant expression meaning "to take a leap of faith" or "to take a decisive risk." Inspired by an ancient folk custom from the Edo period, this belief held that jumping from the balcony of Kiyomizu Temple could grant a wish if one survived the fall. More than 200 people actually jumped, with a high survival rate thanks to the vegetation of the time, until the practice was formally banned in the 19th century.

Very few works depict this theme. A famous print by Suzuki Harunobu, circa 1765, shows a woman in mid-jump, umbrella in hand, but she is not naked and is not wearing a headband. This painting goes further. Through the reversal of the umbrella, the willful blindness, and the tension between unveiling and modesty, it offers a philosophical reading: that of the absurdity of a sincere gift that encounters nothing. It embodies the concept of mitate—a central process in Japanese aesthetics consisting of reinterpreting a classical theme to reveal a more intimate, often melancholic truth.

This rare work from the Edo period poetically and aesthetically questions the solitude of desire, the vulnerability of the offered gesture, and the gaze of the world, which often captures only nudity and not the meaning of the leap. An exceptional piece for collectors of Japanese art or lovers of erotic painting.