People Who Like the Latest Fashions and Manners
About This Series
This series by Utagawa Kuniyoshi belongs to the tradition of furyu and ryuko prints, the so-called pictures of contemporary fashion that flourished in Edo ukiyo-e from the late eighteenth century onward and were sustained well into the nineteenth by buyers eager to see the styles of the day captured in print. The title indicates a survey of people taking pleasure in the latest fashions and manners, a phrasing that signals both the descriptive ambition of the project and the gentle self-awareness with which Edo print culture regularly mocked its own appetite for novelty. Each sheet would have isolated a figure or small group identifiable through hairstyle, kimono pattern, accessories, and the small gestures that marked the consumer of the moment, set against a sparse or lightly indicated background that kept attention on the costume itself. As an example of mid-nineteenth-century bijinga and genre work, the prints reflect Kuniyoshi's flexibility outside the warrior and historical subjects for which he was most famous, and they document the persistence of the fashion print as a vehicle for what would now be called consumer reporting. Publisher and exact date should be verified against the standard catalogues, but the series fits within the network of Edo houses that supplied Kuniyoshi fashion subjects alongside his musha-e and landscapes. Modern scholarship on Edo material culture has come to value such prints highly for their detail, since they preserve the textile patterns, hair ornaments, and small accessories of a moment in urban life that left little other trace. The series also illustrates the close ties between print publishers and the fashion economy of Edo, where prominent kimono shops sometimes commissioned designs that effectively functioned as advertising, blurring the boundary between commercial promotion and the depiction of contemporary taste.
Prints in This Series (1)
Frequently Asked Questions
This series by Utagawa Kuniyoshi belongs to the tradition of furyu and ryuko prints, the so-called pictures of contemporary fashion that flourished in Edo ukiyo-e from the late eighteenth century onward and were sustained well into the nineteenth by buyers eager to see the styles of the day captured in print. The title indicates a survey of people taking pleasure in the latest fashions and manners, a phrasing that signals both the descriptive ambition of the project and the gentle self-awareness with which Edo print culture regularly mocked its own appetite for novelty. Each sheet would have isolated a figure or small group identifiable through hairstyle, kimono pattern, accessories, and the small gestures that marked the consumer of the moment, set against a sparse or lightly indicated background that kept attention on the costume itself. As an example of mid-nineteenth-century bijinga and genre work, the prints reflect Kuniyoshi's flexibility outside the warrior and historical subjects for which he was most famous, and they document the persistence of the fashion print as a vehicle for what would now be called consumer reporting. Publisher and exact date should be verified against the standard catalogues, but the series fits within the network of Edo houses that supplied Kuniyoshi fashion subjects alongside his musha-e and landscapes. Modern scholarship on Edo material culture has come to value such prints highly for their detail, since they preserve the textile patterns, hair ornaments, and small accessories of a moment in urban life that left little other trace. The series also illustrates the close ties between print publishers and the fashion economy of Edo, where prominent kimono shops sometimes commissioned designs that effectively functioned as advertising, blurring the boundary between commercial promotion and the depiction of contemporary taste.
The People Who Like the Latest Fashions and Manners series contains 1 prints, created by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
The People Who Like the Latest Fashions and Manners series was created by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳).
We currently have 1 of 1 known prints from the People Who Like the Latest Fashions and Manners series indexed in our collection. Browse them all on this page.
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