After Bath

A woman after her bath, her hair still damp, her body wrapped in a towel or loosely dressed in a yukata — a subject central to Goyo's exploration of feminine privacy and physical existence. The after-bath moment had been a favorite of bijin-ga artists since Utamaro, but Goyo's version strips away the earlier tradition's stylization in favor of something more direct and physically immediate: a real woman in a real moment of vulnerable, unselfconscious beauty. Posthumous editions preserved from his 1920 designs maintained his production standards.