Looking cool: the appearance of a geisha in the fifth or sixth year of Meiji
- Medium:
- Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
- Image courtesy of
- Saru Gallery
This print belongs to Fūzoku sanjūniso (Thirty-two Aspects of Customs and Manners), the 1888 [bijin-ga](/glossary/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](/glossary/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](/glossary/washi) in [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) technique, the sheet illustrates Yoshitoshi's attempt to renew [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) by combining traditional craft with the psychological specificity of modern portraiture.
1888
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Color woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Looking cool: the appearance of a geisha in the fifth or sixth year of Meiji was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年).
Looking cool: the appearance of a geisha in the fifth or sixth year of Meiji depicts bijin-ga.
