Women Representing the Four Social Classes, Utagawa Kunisada (Panel 1)

Women Representing the Four Social Classes, c. 1836-1838, Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), Pair of hanging scrolls; ink, color and gold wash, 124.8 x 54.1 cm

This piece is a pair of two hanging silk scrolls, the left showing the daughter of a merchant standing and a fan making woman seated, and the right with a samurai status woman standing and a peasant woman seated. This work gives direct representation of the idea of social classes for women at the time, from the perspective of this artist. The differences in their clothing is very striking, showing how fashion is a tool to easily distinguish between people of different classes. The pairing of women on each scroll is intriguing as well, with the lowest class peasant woman alongside the samurai woman who is clearly wealthy and of high social standing. They are a strong contrast. The merchant’s daughter and fan maker are more similar, though the merchant class woman does look down on the fan maker compositionally. This composition conveys a sense of clear social strata and hierarchy as one woman rises above the other.