Bijin Visiting a Temple in the New Year

Mizuno Toshikata

The word “bijin” translates to “beautiful person” and was often applied to images of attractive, fashionable women going about their daily routines, a popular subject during the height of ukiyo-e printmaking in the late 19th century. Shown here is a woman in a purple robe and patterned kimono, offering an omamori - a charm or amulet - to a Shinto shrine on the first day of the Japanese New Year. Traditionally, a new omamori is purchased while the previous year’s is brought as an offering to be burned at the shrine for luck or protection. This was a kuchi-e print, a fold-out placed at the front of Japanese literary magazines from about 1890 to 1910. Toshikata was often commissioned by literary magazines to illustrate various works or to produce the stand alone kuchi-e.