The Floating World Takes Shape

Sugimura Jihei (attributed)

On the Yoshida Highway

c. 1685

Hand-colored woodblock print, 59.1 × 29.3 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago

An actor plays Miyako no O Kuni, the woman who founded kabuki, seated upstairs while one character shades another below.

• Name tags identify the roles; the play and actors remain unknown.
• Sugimura also helped popularize literary classics, John Carpenter notes.
• Tan-e: orange-red lead color brushed on after printing, the first way color reached these prints.

Image: Art Institute of Chicago open access · CC0