A bijin standing on a balcony looking out over a snowscene with lake bridge and trees
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database
- Image courtesy of
- Japanese Art Open Database
Description
This bijin-ga composition places an elegantly dressed woman on a raised balcony overlooking a winter landscape of lake, bridge, and bare trees — a format with deep roots in Edo ukiyo-e that Kiyochika inflected with his characteristic light sensitivity. The snowscape below the figure would have offered opportunity for the graduated bokashi that gives his winter scenes their distinctive pale luminosity, with the white of the washi paper itself pressed into service as snow surface. The bijin's silhouette against the cold exterior light creates the kind of interior-exterior contrast that runs throughout his figure work. Unlike the more theatrical bijin-ga of Utamaro's tradition, Kiyochika's female figures tend toward quieter psychological interiority, positioned as observers of landscape rather than subjects of erotic attention.
More Prints by Kobayashi Kiyochika
More Landscapes Prints
Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushiko), from the series Souvenirs of Travel I (Tabi miyage dai isshu)"
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Autumn Maple Leaves at Takao, from the album Eight Views of Kyoto (Kyôto hakkei)
Woodblock print
The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Tea Kettle, section of a sheet from the series "Mirror of Stone Rubbings of Views of the Provinces" (Kohon meihitsu ishizuri kagami)
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
A bijin standing on a balcony looking out over a snowscene with lake bridge and trees was created by Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親).
A bijin standing on a balcony looking out over a snowscene with lake bridge and trees depicts landscapes.