OXFORD, UK.-The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology presents Beauties of the Four Seasons, on view through October 16. From Japanese beauties to decorative kimonos and flowers of the seasons, this exhibition of colourful woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) from the Edo period (1603-1868) reflects more than one hundred years of Japanese taste and cultural respect for the seasons. In Japan, the four seasons play a significant role in everyday life with a variety of cultural traditions referring to the seasons. Festivals such as cherry blossom viewings, different types of costumes, foods, flowers, house interiors and the writing of poems, indicate the seasonal elements.

Works from the Ashmolean's renowned collection of prints by classical artists, including Suzuki Harunobu (c.1725-1770), Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815), Kitagawa Utamaro (c.1753-1806), Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) and Kikukawa Eishi (1756-1829) depict the popular theme of beautiful women (bijinga) in the guise of the seasons. The prints also reveal the fashionable trends of kimono design in a society where the courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters in Edo set the vogue.

The development of the bijinga style during the Golden Age of ukiyo-e (1781-1817) represented the transition from the emotional romanticism illustrated by artists such as Harunobu to a more naturalistic representation. Highlights of the exhibition include works by Kiyonaga, who revolutionised the concept of aesthetic beauty by placing particular emphasis on the human figure. Utamaro, one of the most popular bijinga artists, was fascinated by the emotional expressions of women in daily life. His subjects included girls from teahouses, women from noble families and the courtesans of the Yoshiwara. From the Bunsei era (1818-1829) images of bijinga echoed the decadent mood of the last days of the rule of the Tokugawa Shōgunate and gradually ukiyo-e artists such as Kikukawa Eizan (1787-1867) began to focus on the seductive nature of the bijinga.