Young Man Writing at a Table

A color woodblock print, dated by the Cleveland Museum of Art to about 1800, showing a young man writing at a table. The subject, a literate figure absorbed in correspondence or in the composition of verse, draws on the long association of bijin-ga and wakashu prints with literary refinement, and the careful handling of the writing implements, ink stone, brush, paper, signals the patron's interest in a learned domestic atmosphere. The single-figure intimacy of the composition is characteristic of Toyohiro's preferred mode, which favors quiet absorption over theatrical display. The print is held by the Cleveland Museum of Art.