Bijin-ga (Beautiful Women) Pt1

Beauty with a pipe

Utamaro was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his bijin ōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. After producing a few successful books, Utamaro and the publisher Tsutaya launched an innovative type of bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) series. Utamaro’s close-up portraits straightforwardly captured the facial expressions of his models, vividly evoking their personalities despite their anonymity.

Woman Wiping Sweat ca1793

Fukaku Shinobu Koi, 

which in 2016 set the record price for an ukiyo-e print sold at auction at €745000

Sugatami Shichinin Keshō 

 (姿見七人化粧, "Seven Women Applying Make-up Using a Mirror", c. 1792–93)

Naniwara Teahouse Waitress Okita ca1793

Publisher: Tsutaya Jūzaburō

Okita was a beautiful waitress at the Naniwaya tea-house near Asakusa Temple in the city of Edo. When Utamaro created this print of her, she would have been about fifteen years old. Utamaro also included a cartouche in the shape of a poem card in the upper left portion of the print with a poem by Katsura-no-Mayuzumi that further attests to the allure of Okita:

Resting at the tea-house in Naniwaya district,
Myriad as the reeds of Naniwa Bay
Art those who come running at the name of this shop
Each passerby has to stop.

Fancy-free Type, 1792-1793

Publisher: Tsutaya Jūzaburōe

The woman shown here is identified on the print as the “fickle type.” To convey that quality, Utamaro has her casting a glance over her shoulder, hoping to catch the eye of an interested suitor as she returns, careless and disheveled, from the bath.

Portrait of Tomimoto Toyohina (singer), 1795-1796
Publisher: Ōmiya Gonkurō
This composition is from a six-print series comprising half-length portraits of famous beauties. The women are not identified directly, but their names are given in hanji-e, or picture riddles, adjoining the title cartouche. Utamaro may have used this device to circumvent an edict issued in 1793 that prohibited the naming of women in ukiyo-e prints unless they were prostitutes. Here, a lottery box (tomi), duckweed (mo), and a whetstone (to) serve to “spell” Tomimoto; a door (to), a lantern to suggest night (yo), and a doll (hina) signify Toyohina. This practice ceased in 1796 when a new proclamation specifically forbade the use of picture riddles.

Three Beauties of the Present Day (oji san bijin)  
From Bijin-ga (Pictures of Beautiful Women) 1793

Picture of the Lower Class, c. 1794-1795
Publisher: Wakasaya Yoichi
In this print, Utamaro suggests the low social class of two women through their clothing and deportment. Rather than showing them primly posed with carefully coiffeured hair and luxurious robes, he depicts them with slightly disheveled hair and dressed in simple cotton kimonos. Furthermore, the seated woman has immodestly opened the front of her robe to cool herself with a fan.

 Woman letter writing

Comparing the charms of five beauties

Love of a farmers wife

Matsuō's Wife Chiyo from the Play "Tenarai kagami"

A beauty after her bath