Lady of the Houei Era (1704-1711)

A print depicting a lady of the Houei era (1704–1711) — a period of the middle Tokugawa shogunate characterized by economic crisis and the eruption of Mount Fuji in 1707. Despite these difficulties, the Houei era's visual culture was remarkably refined, its dress and decorative arts representing a mature development of the Genroku aesthetic that had preceded it. Chikanobu's historical lady from this period would be costumed in the characteristic early eighteenth-century refinement of kimono design and hairstyle.