A bloom at the windows — 花のある窓

A bloom at the windows (花のある窓, Hana no aru mado) is a still-life mokuhanga in the F6 print format that places a flowering plant against the gridded geometry of a Japanese window. Although catalogued on the ukiyo-e.org database under Kasamatsu Shirō, the small-format intimate floral subject is consistent with works also attributed to his daughter Kasamatsu Mihoko, and impressions of this design have circulated through dealer channels under both names. The composition belongs to a recurring motif in the postwar Kasamatsu studio: a single concentrated focal point — usually a vase of seasonal flowers — silhouetted against the soft geometric pattern of shōji or window glazing.

In the print, the architectural frame organizes the picture plane into vertical and horizontal divisions, recalling the way a traditional Japanese room frames the view of a garden. Against this measured background, the irregular natural form of the flowering branches reads as deliberate counterpoint, the artist setting the unpredictable curves of stems and petals against the orderliness of the built interior. The palette is restrained — soft greens, ivory, and a low-key blossom color — typical of the muted sōsaku-hanga sensibility of the 1960s and 1970s, when many Japanese printmakers moved away from the saturated colors of prewar shin-hanga toward a quieter, more contemplative tonality.

The motif also reflects the influence of the wider postwar still-life tradition in Japanese woodblock, in which artists turned increasingly toward domestic subjects: arranged flowers, fruit, books, tea utensils. For collectors, the print is a clear example of the late-Kasamatsu manner — small in scale, intimate in subject, and made for the kind of paneled wall where the work could function almost as a tokonoma display.