National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

These prints represent standing figures of attractive prostitutes in three towns, namely, Yoshiwara in Edo, Shimabara in Kyoto and Shinmachi in Osaka. As the title, "triplets of blessing," shows, each of these prostitutes wears kimono with an auspicious pattern (pine, bamboo or plum) and displays refined charm.
Sumizuri-e is a monochromatic woodblock print in ukiyoe-style. It is the original style when ukiyoe grew out of its role as an illustration in a book and became a painting that is appreciated individually.
Okumura Masanobu (1686 - 1764) is a painter representing the early ukiyo-e style who actively produced ukiyo-e for over 50 years from the death of Hishikawa Moronobu to the birth of nishiki-e (multi-colored ukiyoe) (from the late 1600s to the mid 1700s). He is known as an artist who created new types of paintings, such as hashira-e (paintings on pillars) and uki-e (three dimensional paintings), probably due to the fact that he was also a publisher himself called Okumuraya. This work is one of the best by Masanobu who was also good at drawing bijinga (pictures of beautiful women).