from the series Ten Patterns of Alluring Matches in the Modern World (Tôsei tsuya awase jûgata no zu)

From the series Ten Patterns of Alluring Matches in the Modern World (Tōsei tsuya awase jūgata no zu), this sheet pairs two contemporary Edo figures in one of the matched-couple compositions that Kitao Masanobu used to extend the older 'awase' (comparing-by-pairs) tradition into the bijin-ga of the 1780s. The artist — known to readers under his other name, Santō Kyōden — works in the same horizontal, double-figure format he had perfected in his great Yoshiwara album of 1783-1784, but here the pairings step outside the licensed quarter to encompass a wider sample of Edo townspeople: shopkeepers, geisha, and the occasional gentleman, each shown in fashionable contemporary dress. The series title's word 'tsuya' (alluring, sleek, polished) flags the prints as participating in the larger Edo cult of sui or polished urban taste in which Masanobu and Kyōden were themselves leading figures. The line is firm but understated, the robe patterns are printed in muted blues and reds typical of the late-Tenmei palette, and the empty paper around the two figures performs the same function it does in the Yoshiwara album: it stands for the polite, formally lit interior of an Edo parlor. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, holds this impression.