Two Women 1790 - 1810

This vertical woodblock print, by Toriyama Yumiaki, captures a scene of two women within an interior space. The soft colours and delicate lines point to a world of refined beauty, but it is the women's gestures that capture my attention. In the upper panel, a woman delicately holds a pipe, a symbol of leisure and perhaps contemplation, while the woman in the lower panel is holding an object in her left hand. The open mouth suggests she is about to ingest it, while she holds her right hand up to the sky. The gesture of raising a hand towards the heavens is an ancient motif, seen across cultures from the praying figures of early Christian art to the supplicants in ancient Greek tragedies. It is a universal expression of longing, a reaching out to forces beyond our understanding. Here, the artist captures this timeless yearning, inviting us to reflect on the complex tapestry of human emotion that binds us across time.