Seirō Jūnitoki

They depict scenes of courtesans in the Yoshiwara pleasure district at each hour of the twelve-hour traditional Japanese time system.

[2] The term seirō originated in Chinese to denote a pavilion in which a nobleman kept a mistress; in Utamaro's time it referred to Yoshiwara's most privileged pleasure houses.

[6] The scenes are framed as if in candid moments, but are designed for the benefit of the male gaze, as no matter the place, hour, or state of exhaustion, the women maintain their beauty.

[8] Two courtesans are taking to their beds at this early hour, their exhaustion signified by their disheveled clothes and hair.

She bends back in a half-rising posture to whisper into the ear of a kamuro [ja], a young girl who works as a courtesan's servant.

To the right before her is a kamuro [ja], a young girl who works as a courtesan's servant, who appears to be dozing off at such a late hour.

It is deep in the night—the woman in the print has finished her work[2] and is in her nightclothes;[4] the nape of her neck and her left leg protrude from her robe.

She is putting on some zōri sandals, the customary footwear for courtesans in the corridors of the pleasure houses of Yoshiwara.

[5] The French art critic Edmond de Goncourt considered Seirō Jūnitoki Utamaro's "most visually appealing" series.

[11] Seirō Jūnitoki inspired the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's lithographic portfolio Elles.