Hour of the Rat: Mistress
Original title: “Hour of the Rat: Mistress,” from the series Women’s Daily Customs (Fuzoku bijin tokei)
kurzbeschreibung
Kitagawa Utamaro made this colour woodblock print in 1790 for the series "Women in the Rhythm of the Day" (Fuzoku bijin tokei). It shows a woman in traditional dress nursing her child — a quiet everyday episode, drawn with clear, elegant lines.
Description
A floral kimono wraps around the woman, whose piled-up hair is held by a comb. The child lies on her lap as she nurses; the moment stays calm and close. A yellow curtain closes off the picture space behind her, and yellows and oranges dominate. Crisply placed outlines and colour areas set clearly apart from one another shape the sheet. Inscription fields give the title and the artist's name.
Context
The series was made around 1790, in the Edo period, when the ukiyo-e woodblock print was spreading widely in Japan. Utamaro often took up scenes from women's daily lives, including intimate moments such as nursing. By presenting women at different hours of the day, the prints of the series draw attention to how time and a woman's daily round interact.
Impact
The central placement and warm tones convey calm and familiarity at once. That this intimate encounter is drawn so precisely and tuned so carefully in colour lifts it aesthetically without taking away its naturalness.
Technique
Ink and colour were printed on paper in the nishiki-e process, which used a separate woodblock for each colour. The sharp contours and the flatly applied colours follow the Japanese printing practice of those years exactly.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)