Women Washing Clothes
c. 1788
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban, triptych
Dimensions
38.7 × 25.8 cm (right sheet), 39.0 × 25.7 cm (center sheet), 38.1 × 25.4 cm (left sheet)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
21732
Art Historical Context
**Women Washing Clothes** by Torii Kiyonaga, created around 1788, invites visitors into the everyday elegance of Edo-period Japan through this exquisite color woodblock print triptych in oban format. Comprising three sheets (each roughly 38-39 × 25 cm), it captures women engaged in the simple, rhythmic task of laundry by a riverbank, embodying the ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") tradition that celebrated transient pleasures and daily life. Kiyonaga a leading figure in the Torii school, was renowned for his bijin-ga—depictions of beautiful women—rendered with graceful, elongated fig...
About the Artist
Torii Kiyonaga · 1752–1815
Torii Kiyonaga, born Sekiguchi Shinsuke in 1752 in Uraga, Sagami Province, was the son of an Edo bookseller who owned tenements near a bustling fish market. At age 14 in 1765, he began his apprenticeship under Torii Kiyomitsu, the third-generation head of the prestigious Torii school of ukiyo-e, renowned for kabuki theater illustrations and signage. Adopted into the Torii family, Kiyonaga succeede...