The Woman Who Loved Love (Koshoku Ichidai Onna); by Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693), Vol. 5 

Editor: Here we have a page from "The Woman Who Loved Love," illustrated by Yoshida Hanbei. It's a black and white woodblock print, and I’m immediately struck by how much is communicated with so few lines. What stories do you think the artist is trying to tell? Curator: The spareness is the point, isn't it? Like a haiku, it hints at a world of longing and fleeting beauty. These interiors, these figures caught in moments of quiet ritual, they speak to the ephemeral nature of pleasure. Do you sense a subtle melancholy woven in? Editor: I do. It's there in their stillness, a sense of longing, perhaps? What do you think about the composition of two distinct spaces? Curator: Yes, those separate spaces invite us to consider the different facets of this woman's life, the public and the private, the stage and the quiet reflection. And perhaps, the inescapable solitude even amidst company. It’s a study of contrasts, isn’t it? Editor: Absolutely. I hadn't thought about it that way. It really changes how I see it now. Curator: Art's like that; each glance reveals something new, a whisper of untold stories.