May: Umbrella

May: Umbrella is Hamada Josen's contribution for the fifth month of the Comparison of New [Ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) Beauties (Shin ukiyo-e bijin awase), a twelve-month [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) series published around 1918 in dai-[oban](/glossary/oban) tate-e format by the Publication Society of Shin Ukiyo-e Bijin Awase (Murakami). The print shows a young woman standing in a soft spring rain holding a paper umbrella over her shoulder, her body inclined slightly into the wind as the kimono drapes are caught in motion. Josen's solution to the May image draws explicitly on classical bijin-ga conventions of the umbrella-carrying beauty in rain, a subject central to Suzuki Harunobu and Torii Kiyonaga, while the dai-oban scale, the saturated print colors, and the somewhat fashion-plate quality of the woman's costume mark it as unambiguously modern. The composition centers the figure on the vertical axis and uses the curve of the umbrella to crown the design, with diagonal lines of rain descending across the upper field and a soft greenish-grey ground reading as wet earth at the base. The kimono is rendered in deep indigo with a bold floral pattern, the obi in vermilion and gold, and the woman's complexion in the powdered cream of late Meiji bijin print convention. The signature Josen and the red square seal appear at the lower edge, and the cartouche in the upper margin identifies the design as part of the bijin awase series. Multiple impressions are documented through the Japanese Art Open Database from the Robert O. Muller research files, attesting to the print's broad circulation in Taisho-era publishing.