Figure on Plain Ground with Blossoms

This nineteenth-century single-sheet nishiki-e in aiban format, held by the Victoria and Albert Museum (accession number E.13869-1886), depicts a figure isolated against a plain ground decorated with blossoms. The sheet measures 34.3 by 23.2 centimeters, the slightly smaller aiban format that was an economical alternative to the ōban during the Edo and early Meiji periods. The print was purchased by the museum in 1886 from S. M. Franck & Co. as part of a substantial group of Yoshimune prints acquired together. Figure studies set against decorative blossomed grounds were a recurring genre in the Utagawa school's output, descending from the bijin-ga tradition of single-figure beauty prints but extended to historical, theatrical, and narrative subjects. The Yoshimune sheets in the Franck acquisition demonstrate that the artist worked in a range of formats and subjects beyond the better-documented sumo and warrior prints of his early career. This sheet is preserved in the V&A's holdings of Japanese woodblock prints and is accessible through the museum's online catalogue and IIIF image service.