Take 竹 / Bijin hana kurabe 美人花競

From Gekko's Bijin hana kurabe series — which pairs beautiful women with seasonal plants and flowers — this print associates its female subject with take, bamboo. Bamboo carries layered connotations in Japanese aesthetics: resilience, flexibility, longevity, and cultivated elegance, qualities that series of this type project onto the bijin by visual and symbolic correspondence. The figure is likely posed with bamboo fronds as a background or handheld element, her kimono pattern and coloring chosen to complement the cool blue-green of the plant. Bijin hana kurabe series of this type were popular throughout the Meiji period, drawing on the established [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) and kachō-e traditions while centering female subjects dressed in richly patterned contemporary kimono. The compositional challenge was to integrate figure and botanical motif naturally, and Gekko's skill in both subject categories made him well suited to the genre.