No Series Bijin Playing Battledore
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- ukiyo-e.org
$200–$1,500. Common flower prints: $200–$500. Key value factors: Kotani Chigusa's flower prints are delicately produced and accessible. Good condition and vivid color are key value factors.
This [oban](/glossary/oban) woodblock print by Chigusa Kotani presents a bijin (beautiful woman) engaged in playing battledore, the traditional Japanese New Year's game known as hanetsuki. Players use wooden paddles to strike a shuttlecock back and forth, and the game has been a favorite subject of Japanese artists for centuries because it combines graceful movement with festive seasonal associations. Kotani renders the woman mid-play, her kimono sleeves flowing with the motion of the paddle swing. The composition joins a long lineage of hanetsuki images stretching from Edo-period [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) through Taisho-era [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga). The game's association with New Year celebrations gives the print a specific temporal anchor, placing the viewer at the start of the calendar when families gathered for outdoor pastimes.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
No Series Bijin Playing Battledore was created by Chigusa Kotani (小谷千草).
No Series Bijin Playing Battledore depicts music and bijin-ga.
