Hatsumode, new year visit to the shrine

Hatsumode, the first shrine or temple visit of the new year, is a widely observed annual custom in Japan, undertaken in early January for prayers, omikuji fortune drawings, and the purchase of luck arrows and amulets. In bijin-ga, the theme provides an occasion to depict women in formal kimono — silk furisode or visiting kimono — against architectural settings of torii gates, stone lanterns, or shrine pavilions. Shimura would render the figure with the elongated, calm composure characteristic of his postwar bijin-ga, the patterned kimono offering scope for nishiki-e colour and the keyblock providing the linework of obi knots and hair ornaments. The subject sits within a tradition reaching back to Kaburagi Kiyokata and Itō Shinsui, who likewise treated shrine visits as occasions to combine seasonal pageantry with intimate portraiture, and the print continues that approach in a postwar register.