Tipsy (Horoyoi)

A woman in the pleasantly tipsy state called horoyoi — the happy, warm looseness that follows moderate sake drinking — is depicted with flushed cheeks and a slight relaxation of her normally composed bearing. This color woodblock print from 1932 is among the handful of Kotondo's original bijin-ga designs that depict an emotional state rather than an activity, the woman's interior experience visible in her posture and color. The subject was considered charming rather than scandalous in the context of the shin-hanga bijin-ga tradition.