Hanga
Two Girls warming themselves in winter by Takehisa Yumeji — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

Two Girls warming themselves in winter

by Takehisa Yumeji

Medium:
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Image courtesy of
Saru Gallery

Description

A genre scene drawn from the rhythms of domestic life, the print likely shows two young girls clustered around a hibachi or kotatsu, their figures bundled in layered kimono against the cold. Childhood was a recurring subject for Yumeji, who illustrated extensively for children's magazines such as Kodomo no Kuni and produced numerous picture books; his depictions of children avoid both the satirical edge and the saccharine sentiment common in commercial illustration of the period, instead carrying the same wistful, slightly melancholy mood as his bijin-ga. The composition would likely use a simplified, planar arrangement with strong silhouettes and a restrained winter palette — pale grays, muted blues, the warm orange of the brazier serving as a small chromatic focus. The print belongs to the broader Taisho idiom in which seasonal and domestic subjects were reframed through a softer, European-influenced graphic sensibility, drawing on Jugendstil composition while retaining traditional mokuhanga technique with keyblock outlines and hand-printed color blocks.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Two Girls warming themselves in winter was created by Takehisa Yumeji (竹久夢二).

Two Girls warming themselves in winter depicts children and winter.