Nihonga (Japanese Painting) (1)

This print depicts a woman engaged in nihonga — the style of Japanese painting that uses traditional pigments, ink, and [washi](/glossary/washi) — seated before a low table with brushes, ink stone, and a partially finished work. The subject is self-referential: a woodblock print depicting a painter practicing a related but distinct traditional medium. Shuntei's composition probably emphasizes the arrangement of painting tools and the concentration of the figure, her kimono sleeve pulled back to permit brushwork. The print participates in a Meiji genre of depicting women practicing the arts — music, calligraphy, painting — as signs of cultivated femininity, while also reflecting contemporary debates about the relationship between native and imported pictorial traditions.