$1,500–$12,000. Common subjects: $1,500–$4,000. Key value factors: Shimura's refined bijin-ga have a devoted collector base. Earlier prints and rarer subjects command premiums.
Published in 1996 as a posthumous edition, this [oban](/glossary/oban) woodblock print bears the evocative title "Kanashiki Kuchibue" (Sad Whistle), suggesting a woman whose soft, melancholy whistling fills an otherwise silent scene. Shimura Tatsumi creates a composition suffused with quiet sorrow, the figure's posture and lowered gaze conveying an emotional weight that the title names but does not explain. The whistled melody exists only in implication, a sound the viewer must imagine completing the image. This print, produced after Shimura's death from his original designs, preserves his ability to convey complex emotional states through the restrained visual language of [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga).
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Sad Whistle — 悲しき口笛 was created by Shimura Tatsumi (志村立美) in 1996.
Sad Whistle — 悲しき口笛 was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1996).
Sad Whistle — 悲しき口笛 depicts music, figures, and bijin-ga.
