Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828) | Enjoying the Evening Cool at Ryogoku | Edo period, early 19th century

Edo-bunka shirizu 9, Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin-ten [Edo Culture, Series 9: Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Painting], exhib. cat.(Tokyo, 1989), p. 70, pl. 23.

Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin-ten [Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Painting], 8^th April - 7^th May 1989.

Their robes gently fluttering in the evening summer breeze, two fashionably dressed women take a walk by the bank of the Sumida River. They stand by the Ryogoku Bridge, a famous spot for enjoying summer amusements such as fireworks, pleasure boating and river-side restaurants and teahouses which can be seen lining the opposite bank. Both wear boldly pattered obi: the figure on the right decorated with large stylised chrysanthemum flower-heads, the figure on the left with a chequered design containing various motifs including tama [sacred pearl] and daikon [winter radish]. 

Known for his portraits of beautiful women, typically with elegant demeanour and air of ennui, Toyohiro was also a prolific printmaker and illustrator. Toyohiro became a student of Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814), the founder of the Utagawa school. He would later become the teacher of the great landscape woodblock print artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). 

An almost identical composition by Toyohiro, slightly wider and with the addition of a boy attendant, is in the collection of the Edo Tokyo Museum, collection ID 91220004, go to: 

https://www.edohakuarchives.jp/detail-7208.html