Bijin in reeds

Bijin in reeds — a figure set within the tall grasses that grow along riverbanks, lakeshores, and tidal flats. Reed-beds (ashi no hara) in Japanese landscape have poetic associations with concealment, with the rustling sound of wind through the stems, and with the habitat of waterbirds like herons and egrets. A bijin partially hidden by or emerging from the reeds combines the figure study with landscape in a way that emphasizes the woman's affinity with the natural world, her presence in the reeds as natural as the birds that nest there.