Plum Beauty

The third in a series of prints pairing a female figure with plum blossom, a subject that occupied Eiho across multiple designs. Plum (ume) is the first tree to flower in Japan, typically in late January or February, and carries associations with perseverance, purity, and the anticipation of spring — all qualities that mapped readily onto bijin-ga subject matter. The series format allowed variation in the woman's relationship to the plum: she might stand beneath a trained branch, hold a sprig, observe blossoms from a veranda, or wear a kimono patterned with ume motifs. Bokashi gradation in pale sky tones and the delicate key-block rendering of individual blossoms would have required careful registration across the printing blocks.