Twelve Views of Tokyo: Iris Field, Shin-Yoshiwara Licensed Quarter

Two women stand at a bamboo fence bordering an iris bed lit by paper lanterns on tall poles, white and yellow irises blooming among the leaves. At left a woman in a white floral-patterned kimono with a red under-robe turns her head back over her shoulder; at right, seated on a red carpet against a pink-and-red patterned screen, a second woman in a dark kimono with a red-and-white patterned collar holds a long pipe. The palette is dominated by deep greens and blacks against a dark indigo night sky, with red text cartouches at top giving the series title; this sheet is the right-hand section of Toyohara Chikayoshi's 1882 oban triptych "Twelve Views of Tokyo: Iris Field, Shin-Yoshiwara Licensed Quarter."