Spring

A seasonal [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) keyed to the spring (haru) iconography that Shinsui drew from throughout his career. Without a more specific subtitle, the print likely shows a woman associated with traditional spring motifs — cherry blossoms, plum, willow, or early flowering branches — with the costume and palette adjusted to the season. Spring prints in the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) vocabulary typically feature soft pinks, fresh greens, and pale skin tones rendered through layered [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) on [washi](/glossary/washi). Shinsui structured many of his series around the Japanese seasonal calendar, following a tradition that runs through the history of [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) and Japanese painting more broadly. The collaborative process — Shinsui's design, the carver's keyblock, the printer's registration of multiple color blocks — would produce the gradated sky tones and textile patterning typical of the artist's mature manner. The print belongs to the shin-hanga use of the seasonal cycle as a frame for feminine portraiture.