One out of a series of six 

This woodblock print is one of six by Kitagawa Utamaro, created in Japan around the late 18th century. The series depicts women associated with famous sake brands. Utamaro was a leading designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, which flourished in the Edo period. Ukiyo-e, meaning “pictures of the floating world,” often portrayed courtesans, actors, and scenes of urban life. The prints were made for the entertainment of the merchant class. This print shows a woman in elaborate clothing, seated next to a sake barrel. Her elegant attire suggests a woman of leisure, likely a courtesan. Woodblock prints were a commercial art form, existing within a complex economy of publishers, artists, and artisans. To understand such images fully, historians consult a range of sources, from business archives to government records, to reveal the complex social context of their production and consumption.