Feeding Mulberry Leaves to the Silkworms, no. 3 from the series A Woman's Occupation of Raising Silkworms

Images of the stages of silk production, or sericulture, date back to 12th-century China. This sheet, based on an earlier print series from 1772, is the third in an amazing work by Utamaro that links twelve sheets together in an unbroken composition.

The text reads “Picture of feeding the silkworms with mulberry [leaves] after their third resting. Because they keep getting bigger and bigger and multiplying, there is no respite from transferring them to other bamboo mats and the like and preparing the chopped mulberry leaves.”