$1,000–$15,000. Beauty prints by this artist are particularly sought after. Original prints and illustrations: $4,000–$8,000. Key value factors: Yumeji's popular image means many reproductions exist. Original prints are scarcer and more valued.
A woman holding a shamisen stands in an elevated position — "High Climb" — in this composition that combines the instrument of traditional entertainment culture with a spatial elevation suggesting aspiration, escape, or the literal altitude of a mountain village. The shamisen here is not merely an instrument but a marker of a particular world — the geisha quarter, the traveling musician, the performing woman — and the height of the position gives the figure a kind of precarious dignity. Yumeji was drawn to elevated, liminal positions for his figures: above the ordinary ground of daily life but exposed to its weather.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
High Climb, woman with shamisen was created by Takehisa Yumeji (竹久夢二).
High Climb, woman with shamisen depicts music and bijin-ga.
