Uma no koku (The Hour of the Horse [Midday]), from the series Musume hi-dokei (Sundial of Young Women) , ca. 1794-95

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753?-1806) Uma no koku (The Hour of the Horse [Midday]), from the series Musume hi-dokei (Sundial of Young Women), ca. 1794-95 Woodcut of a scene of women at the bath, one standing drying her ear with a towel and tucking another folded towel under her arm, one kneeling clenching in her teeth a bag of rice-bran (nukabukuro) used to exfoliate the skin and wringing a wet towel in her hands, from the series of five prints devoted to scenes of women engaged in various daylight activities, the outlines of faces rendered with gauffrage, not inked lines, the lips printed in red without black-ink outlines, yellow ground, signed Utamaro hitsu, mark of publisher Murataya Jirobei, censor's seal kiwame (certified)--good impression, slightly faded and stained, though generally good condition oban tate-e: 15 x 10in. (37.8 x 25.7cm.) As transcribed and translated by Asano and Clark in Utamaro (see below), the inscription to the left of the title cartouche reads: Kodai wa joyu saru no koku o motte kono zu o ataru (in olden times the women's bath as shown in this picture took place at the Hour of the Monkey [about 4pm]."