“Hour of the Rat: Mistress,” from the series Women’s Daily Customs (Fuzoku bijin tokei)
Kitagawa Utamaro Japanese
Kitagawa Utamaro, one of the most prolific artists of the bijin genre that portrays beautiful women, made many images of mothers and children. Here, to illustrate the hour of midnight, Utamaro chose a mother who sleepily emerges from a mosquito net to attend to her child, who rubs the sleep from his eyes. The personal, everyday nature of the subject exemplifies the new interest in the individual that emerged during the mid- to late Edo period.
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