Girl Playing Battledore

A girl plays hanetsuki — the traditional New Year's game similar to badminton, played with a decorated wooden paddle called a hagoita and a shuttlecock — the paddle swung in the bright cold of a winter holiday. The game was especially associated with the New Year season and with girls' play, making it a subject rich in seasonal and cultural significance. Kasamatsu renders the girl in the motion of play, the hagoita raised and the shuttlecock at the apex of its trajectory in a composition that captures kinetic joy.