Late summer

Late summer belongs to Shimura Tatsumi's postwar bijin-ga output, in which a single female figure is studied for the quiet psychological register of a passing season. The title points to the late-summer interval (banka or zansho), traditionally signaled in Japanese painting by a thin cotton yukata, an uchiwa fan, or the slackened posture induced by lingering heat. Shimura's prints from this period typically isolate the sitter against an undescribed ground, allowing the kimono pattern and the contour of the neck and shoulders to carry the image. The block work would have been printed on washi with a baren, using bokashi gradations in flesh tones and kimono ground to soften the transitions characteristic of mid-century shin-hanga and its successors. Within his wider career, seasonal subjects allowed Shimura to extend the Kaburagi Kiyokata lineage of bijin-ga he had inherited through Yamakawa Shuho, applying its restrained palette and attention to costume to a less narrative, more contemplative kind of figure study.