Four Women Passing a Group of Trees

In this Metropolitan Museum of Art print, Utagawa Toyokuni arranges four women walking past a cluster of trees, a composition that belongs to the [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) (pictures of beautiful women) strand of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) closely connected to the better-known [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e) tradition that anchored the Utagawa school's commercial output. The four-figure arrangement allowed Toyokuni to display the full range of his costume drawing, with each woman dressed in distinct textiles whose patterns contribute to the rhythmic, almost frieze-like organization of the sheet. The presence of trees behind the figures introduces a seasonal pictorial register, connecting the figures to the broader [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) (famous places) and seasonal-imagery traditions of Edo ukiyo-e. Toyokuni's linework is characteristic of the mature Utagawa school approach: confident curving outlines, attentively observed faces, and a controlled palette that allows pattern to do much of the visual work. Although the women are not identified as specific individuals, the level of attention paid to coiffure and dress reflects the same attention that yakusha-e applied to identifying particular performers, and contemporary viewers would have read the figures as fashionable urbanites of a specific social and stylistic register. As an example of Utagawa Toyokuni's contribution to bijin-ga, the print demonstrates that his reputation as the leading yakusha-e designer of his generation rested on a broader compositional fluency. The Metropolitan's preservation of the print supports ongoing study of the Utagawa school's range within Edo ukiyo-e.