Combing Hair (Kamisuki)
- Date:
- 1929
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print (finished print: 1930.361)
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 46.9 × 30.2 cm
- Publisher:
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.
A woodblock keyblock and red block proof, this impression records an intermediate state in the production of the finished print "Long Undergarment" (1936.226). The composition shows a woman in the act of arranging her nagajuban, the undergarment that falls between the skin and the outer kimono. Such working proofs are rare documents of the collaborative printmaking process, recording the incremental addition of color to the artist's initial design. The subject captures the intimacy of dressing, the layered ritual through which a woman constructs her outward appearance.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Combing Hair (Kamisuki) was created by Torii Kotondo (鳥居言人) in 1929.
Combing Hair (Kamisuki) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1929).
Combing Hair (Kamisuki) depicts figures and bijin-ga.
Combing Hair (Kamisuki) measures 46.9 × 30.2 cm (Oban format).
