Looking smoky - appearances of the housewife of the Kyôwa era

In terms of the centuries-old 'ukiyo-e' tradition, the period from the mid to the end of the nineteenth century is considered the decadent period', since the prints are often characterised by crude and violent subjects, by harshness rather than delicacy, and by gaudy synthetic colours rather than the delicate vegetable dyes of earlier prints. Although Yoshitoshi's works fall within the 'decadent' category, he was perhaps the most creative of his contemporaries and capable of subtle, graceful compositions as exemplified in this beautiful print which shows a middle-class woman fanning a fire. The print belongs to the series 'Thirty-two aspects of customs and manners', which depicts typical moments in the daily lives of women of different social classes during the previous one hundred years.

Art Gallery Handbook, 1999. pg. 284.