Artisans (Shokunin)

From the series An Up-to-Date Parody of the Four Classes (Imayo mitate shi-no-ko-sho)
Woodblock print
Each sheet signed Toyokuni ga
Published by Uoya Eikichi, 8th month 1857
Censor's seal: aratame

In this rare print, Kunisada replaced the men usually associated with the theme of representing the four classes (warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants), with women. Here he chose artisans - and of women making woodblock prints in an atelier. The triptych portrays the print-making process in a lively manner; a woman at a low table in the centre is using a mallet to gouge wood from a woodblock, the woman at another low table to the right is using a sharp tool to incise fine lines to another woodblock using an artist's original drawing, the woman in the foreground is sizing paper, ready for printing, and to the left a woman holding a smoking pipe is waiting patiently to begin printing.

For the same print in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), New York, accession no. JP3495a–c, go to:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60026874

Oban triptych:
Left sheet: 34.9 x 25.4 cm. (13 ¾ x 10 in.)
Middle sheet: 34.8 x 25.4 cm. (13 ¾ x 10 in.)
Right sheet: 34.8 x 25 cm. (13 ¾ x 9 ⅞ in.)

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.