Pounding Silk

A woman pounds silk in the old manner, using a wooden mallet to soften and lustre the finished fabric — a craft practice that predates commercial production of smooth silk textiles. The 1930 composition depicts a woman at physical labor, a departure from the cosmetic and personal-care subjects that dominate Kotondo's bijin-ga. The pounding of silk was associated in Japanese classical poetry with autumn evenings, lending the subject a seasonal and literary dimension beyond its immediate physical content.