Women of Edo, close up

Kitagawa Utamaro

Woodblock prints from Edo, most of them from the 1790s, with Utamaro’s women drawn close, often head and shoulders. Two women with their heads together, one in black with white dots, a woman wiping her face after the bath, two ladies each holding part of a lacquered mirror, a mother with her baby at midnight, children at play around a standing screen, and a household scrambling under a green mosquito net as a thunderstorm comes in.

As a puzzle

Big shapes on quiet grounds. The black hair, stuck with combs and pins, is the easiest place to start, then the patterned robes: white dots, red and white checks, stripes, the green net. The backgrounds are plain paper or one even yellow, and the mother before the lion screen is pale nearly all over, so keep the count moderate.

A good size here: 50–200 pieces.

Also filed under Ukiyo-e

Subjects here: Children Everyday Life

8 pictures, pick one to build