Lion dance

This appears to be a second composition in a small Lion dance grouping, returning to the shishi-mai motif from a different angle or pairing of figures. Variations on a single subject were a longstanding practice in Japanese woodblock printing, allowing publishers to issue complementary images while permitting the artist to test alternative compositions. Such pairings often differ in palette, figure orientation, or the inclusion of secondary elements like drums, lanterns, or auxiliary performers. The mokuhanga process — keyblock followed by progressive colour blocks printed on dampened [washi](/glossary/washi) with the [baren](/glossary/baren) — sustains the registration required for the patterned lion fabric. Like much of Shimura's work, the print pairs a vernacular subject with the technical refinement characteristic of postwar [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga), where the medium had increasingly become a vehicle for measured, contemplative imagery rather than mass-market narrative scenes.