Unknown, bijin

This woodblock print depicts a bijin, the Japanese term for a beautiful woman, connecting Kusaka's contemporary practice to the oldest and most enduring genre in Japanese printmaking. Bijin-ga prints have constituted a major category of woodblock art since the seventeenth century, and any modern artist working in the genre enters a conversation with masters from Harunobu through Utamaro to Ito Shinsui. Kusaka's interpretation of the bijin subject filters it through a contemporary sensibility that may depart from the idealized conventions of the traditional genre while retaining its essential focus on feminine beauty and the visual pleasures of clothing, hairstyle, and pose. The woodblock medium preserves the intimate scale and material warmth that have always characterized the bijin-ga tradition.