from the series Suikoden of Women's Customs, from 108 (Fūzoku onna Suikoden, hyakuhachiban no uchi)

From the series Fūzoku onna Suikoden, hyakuhachiban no uchi (Customs of Women: Suikoden of the 108), this Edo ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) is part of a witty reworking of the Chinese vernacular novel Shuihu zhuan (Water Margin), which Kuniyoshi had earlier helped transform into one of the defining themes of nineteenth-century Japanese warrior prints. While his celebrated Tsūzoku Suihhōden gōketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori series of the late 1820s populated the public imagination with images of muscular, tattooed Chinese heroes and established Kuniyoshi as the foremost master of warrior prints, this later series substitutes contemporary Japanese women for the 108 outlaws. The conceit is characteristic of Edo ukiyo-e: high literary or martial subjects are translated into the world of fashionable women, geisha, and townsfolk in a mode known as mitate, or parody-allusion. Each sheet in the series matches an individual hero from the Suikoden to a present-day female counterpart, typically depicted as a single half-length or full-length figure paired with an inset cartouche carrying the original character's name. Kuniyoshi's design language - assured outlines, dense patterned kimono, and confident use of blocks of color - gives these prints a graphic punch despite their domestic surface. The series demonstrates how the Suikoden craze that Kuniyoshi himself had ignited continued to spawn variations across genres throughout the late Edo period. This impression is preserved in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums (object 207741), where it joins a substantial holding of Kuniyoshi prints used by researchers of Japanese woodblock printing and Edo popular literature.