Shiraito of the Hashimoto-ya

This sheet portrays Shiraito of the Hashimoto-ya, the protagonist of a tragic love story that circulated in late-Edo and Meiji popular literature and on the kabuki stage. The Hashimoto-ya was a teahouse, and Shiraito — whose name means white thread — is depicted in the elaborate uchikake and obi of a high-ranking jorō. Yoshitoshi's bijin-ga of named courtesans tend to combine documentary attention to the textiles, hair ornaments and accessories of the pleasure quarters with a narrative undertow, the figure carrying within her pose the foreknowledge of the story's outcome. The print would have relied on careful registration of multiple colour blocks, with bokashi to model the patterned silks and a restrained background to throw the figure forward. The work belongs to the strand of Yoshitoshi's late practice that, while still rooted in nishiki-e tradition, read its female subjects as individuals rather than as types.