After the Bath

"After the Bath" belongs to the yu-agari tradition within [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), depicting a woman in the intimate moment following the o-furo. Shinsui returned to this theme repeatedly throughout his career, finding in the disarray of damp hair, loosened collar, and unguarded posture a vehicle for sustained study of the female form. The print would have been produced through [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) multi-block color printing, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations rendering the flush of warmed skin and the translucent quality of an unlined yukata or naga-juban. The carver and printer collaborating with Shinsui at the Watanabe workshop or his later publishers achieved the soft transitions of complexion through carefully wiped color blocks pressed by baren onto fine washi. Such intimate domestic subjects connect Shinsui to the late [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) bijin-ga of Toyokuni and Kunisada, but his treatment renders the figure with the psychological interiority that distinguishes [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) from its Edo-period predecessors.