[Yugiri]

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[Yūgiri]

[Shima], Seien [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō: Dai Chikamatsu Zenshū Kankōkai, 1923?].

A large (dai-ōban) woodblock print by the prominent painter Shima Seien (1892–1970), depicting Yūgiri, the courtesan heroine of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Yūgiri Awa no Naruto. The print was originally issued with the sixteen-volume Dai Chikamatsu Zenshū (The Complete Works of Chikamatsu), published between 1922 and 1925. Although women artists remained uncommon as designers of woodblock printed book illustrations during the Meiji period, the Taishō era witnessed a marked increase in their participation. Dai Chikamatsu Zenshū reflects this changing artistic landscape through the inclusion of designs by Shima Seien, Uemura Shōen, and Kitani Chigusa alongside those of many of Japan's leading male artists. Seien first came to national prominence when one of her paintings was accepted for the Bunten exhibition at the age of twenty, and went on to establish herself as one of Japan's foremost women painters. Yūgiri's gaunt features and darkened eyelids arguably recall Seien's celebrated self-portrait with a bruised eye. Both works reflect the artist's willingness to depict women marked by hardship rather than idealised beauty, a recurring theme throughout her career. A haunting woodblock print by one of the leading women artists of the Taishō period.

One dai-ōban leaf, woodblock-printed on one side. Paper browned and a little creased. Several marks and two small holes to leaf. Bumps and very small tears to extremities. 45.8 x 29.2 cm.

[Yugiri]
Price: $380.00 (USD)