Hour of the Sheep, Young Girls

Prior to 1873, when Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar used in most countries, a day was subdivided into twelve segments identified by animal signs from the zodiac that originated from China. The hour of the goat was between 1 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Utamaro designed several sets of beautiful women in accordance with the different hours of the day, the most famous of which is the series Twelve Hours in the Yoshiwara (Seirō jūni toki) dating from around 1794 that shows the figures in full length. This print is from a later series showing the protagonists up close in half-length. The time of day in question is the end of a school day, and we are probably looking at an upper middle-class merchant family. While the older girl in the back is engrossed in her book, the younger one at the front is presenting her handwriting exercise with corrections noted in red to her senior.