Woman by a Stream

While artists associated with the Maruyama and Shijo_ Schools were renowned for their images of flowering plants, birds and animals, they were also accomplished figure painters. Mihata Jo_ryu_, a pupil of the renowned Shijo_ School master Okamoto Toyohiko, specialized in genre subjects, especially images of beautiful women. For this depiction of a woman who has accidentally dropped her fan in a stream, Jo_ryu_ took extraordinary care to depict her face and the volume of her body as suggested by the folds of her robe. Other details, too, reveal his attention to realism, including the transparency of her summer robes and her tortoise-shell hairpins and combs.