Gidayū Chantress Reading Books

Hokusai is lauded for his landscapes, especially those from his series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. However, he also designed many prints featuring women as the main subject. This print, showing a young girl reading a book, is an example of Hokusai's surprisingly close and careful observation of women's fashions. The girl's red and purple kimono with woven ikat pattern accords well with her green sash decorated with a bold flower pattern. The green and red combination is repeated on her inner robes. Her lower lip is green, a popular fashion in the early 19th century. Beni (safflower dye), applied in successive layers, changed from bright red to iridescent green. Hokusai cleverly took notice of this fashion and integrated it in the color scheme of his design. Meiji-period reproduction.