Description
In Bathtime (Gyōzui), a woman bends over a round wooden bath to wash an infant, her exposed shoulder and ochre robe close to the splashing child. The tub gives their shared activity a compact setting. Kitagawa Utamaro makes bathing an intimate human encounter, allowing the adult’s care and the infant’s presence to remain central without requiring an elaborate occasion or a securely named family identity.
Dating to around 1801, the woodblock print uses ink and color on paper. Its Edo-period subject gives daily life a continuing visual form, allowing something ordinarily brief and practical to receive sustained attention. The work’s appeal lies in that change of pace, where the everyday act of bathing can carry a human encounter without a formal portrait identity or a grand occasion.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.
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