Appearing Bewildered, Behavior of a Fireman's Wife of the Kaei Era

This woman is identified as a fireman’s wife during the Kaei Era (1848–55). The jacket of her husband, hanging on the wall behind her, has a single character in red: matoi 纏; it refers to a fireman’s standard, used to signal the location of a fire. Such a jacket would have been worn by a leader of a fire brigade. In fact, it appears to be the same one worn by the leader of the Nihonbashi district fire brigade Yoshitoshi depicts in the neighboring print, suggesting the woman here is that firefighter’s wife.