
Drunken Girl in a state of undress
- Medium:
- Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
- Image courtesy of
- Saru Gallery
Description
This print belongs to Mori's recurring engagement with the rougher, more candid side of Edo townscape culture, depicting a young woman in disarray after drinking. The subject—loosened kimono, slumped posture, hair disordered—reflects the artist's preference for unidealized figures over the polished [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) of his [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) predecessors. Mori typically rendered such figures in heavy black outline against flat planes of colour, drawing on the visual vocabulary of [kappazuri](/glossary/kappazuri) (stencil printing) that he developed alongside conventional mokuhanga. The composition probably emphasises the figure with minimal background, allowing the pattern of the disordered robe to dominate the picture surface. Throughout his [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) career, Mori returned to common types from Edo street life—revellers, labourers, merchants, performers—rather than the refined courtesans favoured by Utamaro or Eishi. The result is a print closer in spirit to otsu-e folk caricature than to the restrained [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) bijin tradition, and consistent with his broader interest in the bawdy, theatrical, and unguarded aspects of pre-modern Japanese life.







