Beauty at the Mimeguri Shrine

This fashionable woman is enjoying a cool evening by the Mimeguri Shrine, located on an embankment of the Sumida River, which flows through central Tokyo. Her clothing advertises her sophistication: a chic lightweight black kimono that reveals the colors of her robes underneath, with a complementary obi (sash). Toyohiro was a second-generation artist of the Utagawa School, the most prominent painters of ukiyo-e, or “floating world” pictures. The phrase “floating world” describes a way of life in premodern Japanese cities (17th–19th centuries) that celebrated enjoyment in fleeting pleasures such as art, beauty, and fashion.