Looking cool: the appearance of a geisha in the fifth or sixth year of Meiji

This print belongs to Fūzoku sanjūniso (Thirty-two Aspects of Customs and Manners), the 1888 bijin-ga series in which Yoshitoshi paired transient emotional states with women drawn from successive eras of Japanese life. The subject is a geisha from Meiji 5–6 (1872–1873), rendered suzushisō — looking cool — and likely shown fanning herself or wearing an unlined summer kimono, her posture and accessories reflecting the early Meiji moment when Western influence had begun to filter into the floating world without yet displacing its conventions. The series uses controlled bokashi gradations, a restrained colour palette, and an introspective reading of female interiority that distinguishes Yoshitoshi's late bijin-ga from the more decorative beauties of Utamaro a century earlier. Printed on washi in nishiki-e technique, the sheet illustrates Yoshitoshi's attempt to renew ukiyo-e by combining traditional craft with the psychological specificity of modern portraiture.