Man and Woman Playing Sugoroku

Two figures lean over a dark lacquered sugoroku board set with black and white pieces, one figure resting a hand on the board's edge while the other rests a chin on raised fingers, watching intently. Both wear elaborate patterned kimono — one in a bold plaid/lattice design, the other in dark robes scattered with cherry blossoms and leaves and marked with round crests — and their hair is dressed high with combs and pins; the artist's signature appears in a vertical cartouche at the right. The print is rendered in muted greys, blacks, and whites against a plain toned ground, consistent with its identification as an ōban ukiyo-e woodblock print, ink and color on paper, "Man and Woman Playing Sugoroku," Kitagawa Utamaro, 1890.