Bijin 2

One of a numbered series of bijin studies, this print likely presents a woman in formal or semi-formal kimono, rendered through the layered color printing techniques central to the Watanabe shin-hanga method. Eiho's background in literary illustration gives his bijin work a sense of psychological interiority less common in purely decorative treatments of the subject; the figure's expression and pose tend to imply a situation — waiting, reflecting, attending to a domestic task — rather than simply presenting beauty for its own sake. Washi paper and the application of baren pressure during printing would have contributed the subtle textural quality characteristic of hand-pulled sheets from this period.