A Woman in Western Dress

A woman dressed in Western clothing—a suit, dress, or blouse rather than the kimono that dominates Shinsui's bijin-ga—sits or stands in a pose that acknowledges the increasing presence of Western fashion in postwar Japanese life. Produced in 1960, the print represents one of Shinsui's relatively rare engagements with the modernized dress of postwar Japan, a deliberate counterpoint to the kimono-clad beauties of his career-defining earlier work. The treatment raises implicit questions about continuity and change in Japanese feminine ideals.