Looking cool: the appearance of a geisha in the 5th or 6th year of Meiji (1872-73)

"Looking cool" (suzushi-sō) belongs to Fūzoku sanjūni sō (Thirty-two Aspects of Customs and Manners), Yoshitoshi's 1888 bijin-ga series that pairs each woman with a single descriptive emotional or sensory state and places her in a specific historical era. This sheet shows a geisha located in the early Meiji years (1872-73), a moment when traditional pleasure-quarter attire was beginning to coexist with imported Western fashion. The composition isolates the figure against a plain ground, characteristic of the series, with attention to the patterning of her summer kimono and a fan or cooling gesture that justifies the title. The series relies on careful bokashi gradation in the hair and obi to create depth without distracting detail. Within Yoshitoshi's broader output, Fūzoku sanjūni sō stands alongside his Tsuki hyakushi as the project of a mature artist consolidating ukiyo-e bijin-ga conventions while documenting a world that was disappearing under Meiji modernization.