01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Gyula Tornai's Japán Masszirozónő (The Blind Masseuse), with Footnotes #196

GYULA TORNAI (HUNGARIAN, 1861–1928)

Japán Masszirozónő (The Blind Masseuse), circa 1905-1906

Oil on canvas

67 x 273⁄4 in. (170.2 x 70.5 cm.)

Private collection

Estimated at USD 70,000 - USD 90,000 in Apr 2022

The goze stands fully frontal, holding her staff in one hand and a blue enameled teapot in the other, her shamisen slung across her back. Her clothing, though not richly embroidered nor of expensive cloth, is patterned and her hair is wrapped in a pastel patterned scarf. She appears to be calling out, perhaps offering her services to passers-by. Around her neck hangs her certificate, which validates her association with the Institute for the Blind. With Japán Masszirózonő (The Blind Masseuse), Tornai has given the viewer a world totally foreign to the European sensibility and has captured a moment lost in time in an exotic and faraway land. More on The goze

Goze is a Japanese historic term referring to visually-impaired Japanese women, most of whom worked as musicians.

The ideographs for goze mean "blind" and "woman." The kanji are so because the individual ideograph for goze already existed. Goze is most likely derived from mekura gozen, which also means "blind woman". Although the term goze can be found in medieval records. 

Gyula Tornai (1861 in Görgő – 1928 in Budapest) was a Hungarian painter, now featured in the Hungarian National Gallery. More on Gyula Tornai

Gyula Tornai was a great Hungarian orientalist painter. Tornai studied painting at three different academies: Vienna, Munich, and Budapest. He then traveled to India, China, and Japan before settling in Morocco. He stayed in Tangier between 1890-1891. He participated in the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, where he received a bronze medal. He died in Budapest in 1928. More on Gyula Tornai

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