Image No.6 Motherhood (1)

"Image No. 6: Motherhood" is one element in what appears to have been a numbered series of compositions by Yumeji exploring different aspects of female experience. Motherhood — represented here through the connection between a mother figure and a child or infant — stands in significant contrast to the solitary, longing bijin that dominates his work. The maternal subject brings a different emotional register: connection rather than isolation, the other-directed feeling of care rather than the self-directed feeling of desire. It reveals the breadth of Yumeji's interest in the full range of women's emotional lives.