Girl with lilies

Girl with lilies pairs a young female figure with a spray of lily blossoms, drawing together two of the principal subject categories of Japanese printmaking: the figural tradition descended from bijin-ga and the floral imagery of kacho-e (bird-and-flower pictures). Kawano's treatment characteristically resolves both elements into firm, hand-carved contours holding flat areas of color, with the lilies serving as a counterpoint of organic curve against the more vertical line of the figure. The composition typically arranges the girl and the flowers within a shallow pictorial space, the blossoms held close to the face or shoulder so that the two motifs read as a single unified design. Children and young figures recur through Kawano's prints alongside his dancing women and nude studies, often softened by the inclusion of birds, animals, or flowers that link the figural subject to the natural world. As a self-carved and self-printed sosaku-hanga work, the print exemplifies the movement's insistence on the artist's direct involvement at every stage of making.