Tying Thread, from the series “Women’s Handicrafts: Models of Dexterity" ("Fujin tewaza ayatsuri kagami")

Tying Thread, from the series Women's Handicrafts: Models of Dexterity (Fujin tewaza ayatsuri kagami), is a color woodblock print by Kitagawa Utamaro of about 1792 in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The series belongs to a strand of Edo bijin-ga in which Utamaro turned the conventions of ukiyo-e away from the formal display of courtesans and toward the small, skilled gestures of everyday women at work. Here the focus is on a woman manipulating thread with practiced fingers, her shoulders inclined, her head bent, her concentration drawn entirely into the work at hand. Utamaro stages the scene so that the geometry of her arms, the suggestion of the thread, and the line of her sash all conduct the eye toward the precise meeting of her hands. The title's emphasis on dexterity (tewaza) signals an interest in technical accomplishment, perhaps in spinning, sewing, or some other textile-related craft that played a part in the household economies of urban women. The kimono is decorated with crisp patterning and the hairstyle, ornaments, and slim neck are drawn in the refined manner characteristic of his ukiyo-e portraiture. The work demonstrates Utamaro's range within Edo bijin-ga: alongside his glamorous portraits of Yoshiwara stars, he and his publishers produced subtler images of female labor and skill. For viewers today, the sheet at the Art Institute of Chicago is an opportunity to read his bijin-ga as commentary on what was understood to be praiseworthy in the lives of Edo women.