Dancing Figure (Kamuro) 114/300
by Kaoru Kawano
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Robyn Buntin of Honolulu
- Image courtesy of
- Robyn Buntin of Honolulu
Description
This print, the 114th impression from a limited edition of 300, depicts a kamuro in a dance pose. In Edo-period visual culture, the kamuro was a recognizable type: a young girl in elaborate formal dress, closely associated with the yoshiwara pleasure district and its rituals. Kawano's [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) interpretation renders this figure with the graphic boldness characteristic of the creative print movement — strong contour lines, areas of saturated flat color, and compositional clarity that made his prints immediately legible to Western collectors encountering Japanese printmaking for the first time in the postwar period. The dance pose situates the kamuro within the broader 'Dancing Figure' series framework, unifying diverse figure types under a common formal theme. [Washi](/glossary/washi) support and hand-pulled printing contribute to the warm surface texture typical of Kawano's work.
