The Artisan (Ko) from the series "Beauties Illustrating the Four Social Classes (Adesugata shi no ko sho)"

A woman kneels on a tatami platform in a red-trimmed indigo kimono patterned with a floral motif, holding a folded document up to her face as she reads; beside her, a seated figure in a striped robe bends over papers spread on the floor, brush in hand. Behind them, a window framed in orange-red woodwork opens onto a spray of bamboo leaves against a pale ground, and sandals and a lacquer box sit at the platform's edge. Printed in orange-red, indigo, grey, and black, this koban-format woodblock print is Torii Kiyonaga's "The Artisan (Ko)" from the series *Beauties Illustrating the Four Social Classes (Adesugata shi no ko sho)*, 1774.