『和国百女』|One Hundred Women of Japan (Wakoku hyakujo)
ca. 1695
Medium
Woodblock printed book; ink on paper
Dimensions
10 5/8 × 7 1/4 × 1/8 in. (27 × 18.4 × 0.3 cm)
Classification
Illustrated Books
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1918
Accession Number
JIB65
Tags
Art Historical Context
Hishikawa Moronobu1618–1694), often hailed as the first great master of ukiyo—the "pictures of the floating world"—created *One Hundred Women of Japan (Wakoku hyakujo) around 1695. This wood-printed book, rendered in ink on paper, captures the vibrant everyday lives of Japanese women during the Edo period (161–1868), a time of relative peace and cultural flourishing under the Tokugawa shogunate. Measuring a compact 10⅝ × 7¼ inches, it exemplifies the ehon (picture book) format, where intricate woodblock techniques allowed for mass production of affordable, colorful depictions of urban life. T...
About the Artist
Hishikawa Moronobu 菱川師宣 (Japanese) · 1618 –1694
Japanese, 1618–1694