Ladies Sewing (Kijo saihō no zu)

This 1887 woodblock triptych, dated September 3rd of that year and held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a bijin-ga (picture of beautiful women) depicting Meiji-era ladies engaged in sewing. The composition places elegantly dressed women in a hybrid interior that combines Japanese architectural elements with Western furnishings, the kind of mixed domestic environment that became typical of upper-middle-class Tokyo households during the 1880s. Adachi Ginkō's print belongs to the bijin-ga tradition reaching back through Utagawa, Kitagawa, and earlier schools, but adapts it to a Meiji-specific subject: women at work on Western-influenced sewing tasks, with materials and tools that signal the modernization of household production. The triptych format allows the artist to unfold a panoramic interior scene, with figures, textiles, and furnishings distributed across three sheets in carefully balanced visual rhythm. The print is a useful primary source for the social history of Meiji domestic life and the visual culture surrounding the modern, educated woman. Held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of Japanese woodblock prints, it stands as one of Adachi Ginkō's most accomplished bijin-ga.