Abalone Diver c. 1760

Ishikawa Toyonobu made this woodblock print titled ‘Abalone Diver.’ Images of female divers, called Ama, were popular in Japan as early as the 17th century and this print depicts a nude female diver after emerging from the sea. The print would have been made during the Edo period, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. What's interesting is how these divers were both celebrated for their strength and endurance, and simultaneously sexualized, in popular culture. The prints were made for mass consumption, so reflect a certain attitude towards women at the time. But how might we complicate this reading? Well, we might consult the haiku written above the figure to see what it says about female labor. Or we might think about how the artist and the publisher would both have had a stake in how this image of female labor was perceived. Remember, the meaning of art is contingent on its social and institutional context.