Tokyo Pleasures: Women in Western Dress
Description
A print from the series "Tokyo Pleasures" depicting women in Western dress — one of the documentary images of Meiji Japan's sartorial transformation, in which certain categories of urban women (those associated with the court, the diplomatic community, or progressive institutions) adopted European-style clothing as a marker of modernity. The sight of Japanese women in Western dress was sufficiently novel to constitute one of Tokyo's "pleasures" or attractions, and Chikanobu's documentation of the phenomenon captures both the specific garments and the social world that produced them.
More Prints by Toyohara Chikanobu
More Urban Scenes Prints
A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo: Kiyonaga's Pipe (Edo zumi hyaku shoku: Kiyonaga no kiseru)
Woodblock print
View of Kabuki Theater from Matsuya (Ginza Matsuya yori Kabukiza), no. 3 from the series "Pictures of Ginza, First Series (Gashu Ginza dai isshu)"
1928
Color lithograph
Distant View of Mitsukoshi Movie Theater in Shinjuku from the Sixth Floor of Hoteiya (Hoteiya rokkai kara Shinjuku Mitsukoshi Musashi no kan enbo zu), no. 1 from the series "Scenery of Shinjuku (Gashu Shinjuku fukei)"
1930
Color lithograph
Spring Dusk at the Tōshō Shrine in Ueno
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tokyo Pleasures: Women in Western Dress was created by Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延).
Tokyo Pleasures: Women in Western Dress depicts urban scenes, bijin-ga, and daily life, set at Tokyo.