Long Undergarments

A woman adjusts her long undergarment, the July date marking this as a summer subject — the thin silk of the nagajuban appropriate to the heat. The composition invites the viewer into a domestic interior at an unhurried moment, a woman between states of dress who has paused to adjust what lies closest to her skin. Kotondo treats such subjects without voyeurism, approaching the female figure with the quiet attentiveness of a portraitist whose subject happens to be undressed.