The Chōfu Jewel River (Chōfu no Tamagawa)

Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e, 15¼ x 10¼ in. (38.7 x 26 cm); circa 1834–36
Series:  Six Fashionable Jewel-like Faces (Tōsei mu tamagao)
Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Moritaya Hanzō

A beautiful young woman is out on a boating excursion on a summer evening. She is dressed in a lightweight white cotton robe decorated with blue roundels formed of gibbons pulling their tails. Seated beneath a rolled, dried-reed curtain (sudare), she leans out over the side of the boat, observing the passing scene as she snacks on salted edamame, a popular summer treat. With carefully dressed hair and smart summer outfit, she epitomizes the fashionable woman of the early Tenpō era.