Japanese irises (ayame) and young woman

This print combines Hashimoto's iris subject with a figure study, joining bijin-ga and kacho-e conventions in a mode he developed across multiple compositions. The pairing of women with irises carries classical roots — irises feature in the eight-bridge passage of the Tales of Ise, the yatsuhashi episode that became canonical in screen painting and prints. Hashimoto's sosaku-hanga treatment, however, sets the figure into a designed compositional structure rather than a narrative scene: the irises typically frame or echo the figure, with both reduced to flat color planes through woodblock printing. A keyblock supplies outline while several color blocks carry kimono pattern, skin tone, hair, leaves, and flower color. The print belongs to a body of figure-with-iris compositions that occupy a distinct position in Hashimoto's output, where his architectural sense of structure governs the placement of the human form. As elsewhere in his practice, he designed, carved, and printed every block himself in keeping with the sosaku-hanga ideal.