Koharu
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Art of Japan
$1,000–$15,000. Reproductions and common prints: $1,000–$3,000. Key value factors: Yumeji's popular image means many reproductions exist. Original prints are scarcer and more valued.
Koharu — the courtesan of "Meido no Hikyaku" who shares the love-suicide with Jihei — is depicted in this Yumeji composition, the character who embodied the most tragic dimension of the romantic ideal: the woman loved so absolutely that she must die for it. Koharu is a figure of compassion as much as passion — she agrees to the love-suicide not merely out of desire but out of an inability to live in a world where love of this intensity is impossible. Yumeji's depiction likely captures this quality of sacrificial feeling that made her such a resonant Taisho cultural figure.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Koharu was created by Takehisa Yumeji (竹久夢二).
Koharu depicts bijin-ga and portraits.
