Beauties and Actors

Beauties: Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Eishi

From full figures to close-ups, 1780s–90s

The last quarter of the 1700s is often called the golden age of the print. Rival designers each offered an ideal of feminine beauty, and new formats such as the bust portrait followed.

• A shifting ideal of the beautiful woman
• Poetry circles, publishers and picture books
• Outings, pastimes and private moments

Works in this part

• A Boating Party under Azuma Bridge
• Women Watching a Girl Dance on Shells
• Three Beauties of the Kansei Period
• Takashima Ohisa Using Two Mirrors to Observe Her Coiffure
• Reflective Love
• Picture Book of Crawling Creatures
• Yamauba and Kintarō
• Pleasure Boats on the Sumida River (leftmost sheet)
• Ono no Komachi Visiting Kiyomizu Temple

Image: Art Institute of Chicago open access · CC0