Woman In profile

This print presents a female figure rendered in profile, a compositional choice with deep roots in Japanese figurative printmaking. The profile view emphasizes the line of the brow, nose, and chin while reducing facial information to a contour — a treatment used by bijin-ga artists to convey beauty through idealized line rather than individualized portraiture. In mokuhanga, profile compositions rely heavily on the keyblock carving, where a single sustained line defines the face, hairline, and the sweep of pinned-up hair. Color blocks behind or surrounding the figure are typically printed flat or with subtle bokashi gradation, and impressions are taken with the baren onto washi. The work joins the broader Takasawa Keiichi corpus of female studies, suggesting an ongoing interest in the depiction of women that aligns with both the inherited shin-hanga revival of bijin-ga and the more pared-back, formally inventive figure work that emerged in twentieth-century sōsaku-hanga circles. Without firm biographical dates for the artist, contextual placement relies on stylistic comparison with print contemporaries.