
Waitress at a Seaside Teahouse
1770 · Color woodblock print; hashira-e
Art Institute of Chicago

Katsukawa Shunsen, known as Shunko II, was a Japanese printmaker active during the late Edo period who specialized in bijin-e, portraits of beautiful women, and yakusha-e, theatrical actor prints. Working primarily in woodblock, his compositions combined the linearity and decorative restraint characteristic of the Katsukawa school with a refined attention to fabric pattern and facial expression. His prints circulated widely among urban merchants and theatre-goers in Edo, establishing him as a significant practitioner of the genre during the 1780s and 1790s.
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