Soshin (Zeng Can)

Two women in the foreground carry large bundled loads of brushwood on their backs, tied with rope; one, in a lavender kimono with a green floral-patterned underlayer, bends forward with her bundle resting on the ground, while the other, in a dark navy robe with a red obi and blue headscarf, stands lifting her rope-slung bundle upright. Behind them a flowering pink-blossomed tree arches over a green landscape with distant blue mountains, and a framed inset in the upper right shows a robed figure walking with a shouldered pack beside a small round portrait vignette of a woman's face. The palette is soft pastel greens, pinks, and blues against muted tan margins, with a red-and-white patterned border strip and vertical Japanese text along the right edge; this 1890 woodblock print by Toyohara Chikanobu is titled Soshin (Zeng Can).