Yoshitoshi: Looking Cute: The appearance of a housewife in the tenth year of Meiji (1877)

Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Title: Looking Cute: The appearance of a housewife in the tenth year of Meiji (1877)
Series: Thirty-two Types of Women (Fuzoku sanjû-ni sô)
Date: 1888

A married woman delightedly cuddles her baby son, gushing with maternal delight. She holds her baby inside her robes as he reaches for her face with his tiny hands. Her eyebrows are shaved and her teeth are blackened as was the custom for married women. The printing of the hair is a testament to the unrivaled skill of the Meiji engraver, as the hairs along her face are about the same width as a human hair. With the three-colored cartouche that indicates an early (”first”) edition.

Condition: Excellent impression; very good color and condition. With a faint discoloration in the background, barely visible.
Dimensions: ôban (37 x 25.3 xm)
Publisher: Tsunashima Kamekichi
Seal: Taiso 
Signature: Yoshitoshi

Reference:  See John Stevenson’s “Yoshitoshi’s Women: The Woodblock Print Series “Fuzoku Sanjuniso””, Avery Press (1986), page 80, number 26. See Minneapolis Institute of Arts

SKU: YOT863