Kotondo's bijin-ga are prized for their psychologically intimate portrayals of modern Tokyo women. With only 21 designs and original woodblocks destroyed, all genuine 1930s impressions are scarce. Sotheby's estimated "Summer Geisha" at $8,000–$12,000 in 2023.
A woman emerges fresh from the bath, her body still warm, loosely wrapped in a robe or towel. Yugaeri — the state of having just bathed — is one of Kotondo's favored subjects, capturing a moment of physical ease and private self-possession that carries an implicit intimacy. The artist uses soft tonal gradations to suggest the warmth radiating from the figure, the skin still flushed, the hair loose. Among his rarest and most collected subjects, After a Bath represents Kotondo at his most purely sensory.
Mutsu Tsuta onsen
1919
Color woodblock print; oban
1943
Color woodblock print
Autumn 1920
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
1924
Color woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
After a Bath (Yugaeri) was created by Torii Kotondo (鳥居言人) in 1933.
After a Bath (Yugaeri) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1933).
After a Bath (Yugaeri) depicts nude, figures, and bijin-ga.
