Hishikawa Moronobu (1630/31?-1694)

This painting belongs to a tradition of single-figure painting, which started in the 1660s and continued throughout the history of ukiyo-e. Hishikawa Moronobu was a prolific artist, but his paintings are rare. This barefoot beauty wears a magnificent long-sleeved, green outer robe with a design of cherry blossoms. She lifts her robe with her right hand and touches her collar with her left--a coquettish posture intended to attract a male gaze. Her undergarment was painted with silver pigment, now tarnished to black.

Moronobu's Edocentric style, choice of subjects and array of techniques and formats influenced all later artists of ukiyo-e. Building on his success as a book illustrator, as most ukiyo-e artists began their careers, he established himself as a painter and opened his own studio close to the theater district and the publishers of his books and sheet prints in downtown Edo. Moronobu's books, prints and paintings catered to all groups, but his luxurious paintings went to affluent cognoscenti--most samurai--of the pleasure quarter of around 1690.