Saseru

This oban woodblock print bears the title "Saseru," a Japanese verb form suggesting the act of making someone do something, or allowing an action to occur. Shimura Tatsumi depicts a woman in a pose or interaction that embodies this subtle social dynamic, the figure perhaps assisting another or yielding to circumstance. The title's grammatical form, a causative verb, introduces an element of interpersonal relationship into what might otherwise appear as a single-figure composition. Shimura's bijin-ga prints often carried titles with linguistic nuance that added layers of meaning beyond the visual content, rewarding viewers who understood the cultural and grammatical resonances.