Musashino (Utamaro)

Ukiyo-e art flourished in Japan during the Edo period from the 17th to 19th centuries, and took as its primary subjects courtesans, kabuki actors, and others associated with the "floating world" lifestyle of the pleasure districts.

[2] A prominent genre was bijin-ga ("pictures of beauties"), which depicted most often courtesans and geisha at leisure, and promoted the entertainments of the pleasure districts.

[4] Utamaro experimented with line, colour, and printing techniques to bring out subtle differences in the features, expressions, and backdrops of subjects from a wide variety of class and background.

In the story, a man kidnaps a woman and hides her in Musashino Plain, where their pursuers discover them just as they are about to set fire to the grasses with their torches.

[6] In Utamaro's picture, the search party has become fashionably-dressed, pleasure-seeking women who carry chōchin paper lamps rather than torches.