This catalogue was published to complement  two 2005 exhibitions of Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period which took place at the Ashmolean Museum. The 38 colour plates are of 19th-century bijinga, women with beautiful faces in beautiful kimonos. Among the artists represented are the world-famous Harunbou, Utamaro and Toyokuni and the methods and styles of Edo period woodblocking are discussed in an introductory essay.