Heian Era, from

A print depicting a scene from the Heian era (794–1185) — the golden age of Japanese aristocratic culture that produced the Tale of Genji and the poetry of the Hyakunin Isshu — drawn from one of Chikanobu's major historical series documenting the customs and dress of successive imperial eras. The Heian period held particular fascination for Meiji-era audiences: its literary and aesthetic achievements provided a model of refined Japanese culture that could be celebrated without reference to the politically inconvenient samurai era of the intervening centuries.