12 Aspects of Women, YUKI (Snow)

Date:: Edition of 100, 1980
Medium:: Woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo

Edition:

Published by Watanabe Shozaburo

Source:

Typical Price

This is among Kotondo's most celebrated compositions. Kotondo created only 21 bijin-ga designs (1927–1933), and the original woodblocks were destroyed before WWII, making any original period impression extraordinarily rare. "Kamisuki (Hair Combing)" set the artist record at $72,500 at Christie's New York in 2019.

Later impressions or Ishu Kanko Kai reprints: $1,000–$3,500
Original 1930s editions, good condition: $8,000–$25,000
Finest original impressions of top designs: $25,000–$72,500

Description

Snow falls or has fallen, and a woman stands in its quiet aftermath, the cold air rendered through cool bokashi gradations of blue-white that spread across the background. From the posthumous "12 Aspects of Women" edition of 100, the print demonstrates how Kotondo used seasonal atmosphere as emotional context — the chill and hush of a snowy day becoming an extension of the woman's interior stillness. The work belongs to Kotondo's most intimate register of female experience.