Shinsui's extensive oeuvre spans bijin-ga, landscapes, and genre subjects. Auction averages over 12 months reflect healthy collector demand across all subject types.
The full Japanese title 昭和美人風俗 浅春 ("Showa Customs of Beauties: Early Spring") places this undated [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) within a larger series documenting the life and manners of beautiful women in the Showa period. The subject—a woman in the tenuous warmth of early spring, perhaps at a window or in a garden where the first green shoots appear—carries the bittersweet quality of the Japanese word "asaharu" (early spring), which evokes both the pleasure of winter's end and the awareness of how brief the season will be. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations build the pale, tentative warmth of the season.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Early Spring — 昭和美人風俗 浅春 was created by Ito Shinsui (伊東深水).
Early Spring — 昭和美人風俗 浅春 uses Bokashi, on woodblock print.
Early Spring — 昭和美人風俗 浅春 was published by Watanabe Shozaburo.
Early Spring — 昭和美人風俗 浅春 depicts spring and bijin-ga.
