Woman Holding a Blue Sash
- Date:
- 1923
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- mfa
$2,000–$20,000+. Beauty prints by this artist are particularly sought after. Good bijin-ga: $5,000–$12,000. Key value factors: Kiyokata's influence as a teacher and his connection to Edo culture make his work highly valued. Paintings far exceed print prices.
Dated 1923, Woman Holding a Blue Sash presents one of Kaburaki Kiyokata's characteristic studies of feminine grace through a specific gesture: the handling of an obi sash. The blue sash serves multiple purposes in the composition: it provides a strong color accent, it animates the figure's pose by giving her hands something to do, and it carries associations with the act of dressing or undressing that adds narrative tension to the portrait. Kaburaki's [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) consistently uses costume details as windows into character and situation, and the blue sash may indicate the woman's age, social status, taste, or emotional state. The 1923 date places this print in the year of the Great Kanto Earthquake, though the image depicts the serene, composed femininity that Kaburaki presented as a counterpoint to the upheavals of modern life.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Woman Holding a Blue Sash was created by Kaburaki Kiyokata (鏑木清方) in 1923.
Woman Holding a Blue Sash was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1923).
Woman Holding a Blue Sash depicts bijin-ga.
