The Actor Bando Hikosaburo 2nd as an Oiran in a Gauze Kimono, Standing, Tying Her Obi

As color began to transform the use of line, a new format emerged that also ushered in additional compositional possibilities. The pillar print, an elongated rectangle that refers to the traditional scroll, featured young women partially concealed from the viewer. Their allusiveness adds a certain mystery and allure to the subjects, whose preoccupations with the transaction of love letters and reflections on womanhood reinforce their introspection.

The process of color printing also changed the relationship of parts to whole in the pictorial conception, as was noted in Masanobu's pioneering work. Kiyomitsu intensifies the new mode of color orchestration by intentionally cropping the figure, suggesting a scenario that may only be completed with the passage of time. This reference to temporality heralded a new narrative structure, one that characterized the prints of the next great generation of ukiyo-e artists, such as Harunobu and Utamaro.

Credit: The Francis Lathrop Collection, Purchase, Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1911