
Nude At bath
by Oda Kazuma
- Medium:
- Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
- Image courtesy of
- Saru Gallery
Description
A nude bathing figure, treating a subject — yokujo, the bath — with roots in earlier [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) but here filtered through Western academic figure study. Kazuma trained in yoga under Kawamura Kiyoo before turning to printmaking, and his nudes carry the modeling and anatomical attention of that practice. The composition likely centers a single figure against a simplified interior, with the woodblock medium rendering flesh tones through layered impressions rather than continuous gradation. Within the sosaku hanga movement, the modern nude was a contested subject — taken up by figures such as Onchi Koshiro and Hiratsuka Un'ichi as a sign of artistic autonomy from the genre constraints of ukiyo-e. Kazuma's contribution to the bathhouse tradition shifts it from the ukiyo [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) lineage of clothed beauties toward a more European studio sensibility, with [washi](/glossary/washi) and pigment standing in for the lithographic crayon and stone of his French models.







