10

Plate 10 from Women in Their Pursuits continues Yamamoto Shoun's patient catalog of Meiji feminine life, contributing another quietly observed scene to a series that, taken in full, functions as a graphic diary of turn-of-the-century Japan. Shoun, who studied Kano and Maruyama-Shijo painting before establishing himself as a leading designer of woodblock prints in the 1890s, used the Women in Their Pursuits album to extend the centuries-old [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) tradition into the modern era, replacing the famous courtesans of Edo with everyday wives, daughters, and working women rendered with affectionate precision. The sheet shows his characteristic technical signature: clean brushed outlines softened by mica or gauffrage in the textiles, a palette restricted to a handful of well-balanced colors, and ample negative space that lends the figure an almost photographic stillness. The print descends from the Japanese Art Open Database indexed by [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org, an essential reference for collectors of Meiji bijin-ga and a repository that has preserved the album in its proper order. Shoun's parallel series Ima Sugata (Modern Figures) shared the same impulse to honor the rhythms of contemporary life, but Women in Their Pursuits leans into vocation and activity, lending each plate a sense of purpose absent from more decorative beauty prints of the period. Plate 10 fits comfortably within that program. It is neither sensational nor sentimental, but instead an observation made by an attentive draftsman who believed that the dignity of a Meiji-era woman at her work was subject enough for a print to be worth designing, cutting, and printing with care.