Kotondo is best known for bijin-ga, but his complete oeuvre includes actor prints and other figure subjects. His small corpus of only 21 designs ensures that all authenticated period impressions carry collector interest and scarcity premiums.
Rising steam (yuge) from a bath surrounds a woman in warm vapor, the heat rendered through soft tonal gradations. The 1929 Vapor design is among Kotondo's sustained explorations of the bathhouse subject — a setting that permitted the depiction of the female body in states of undress while maintaining a quality of intimacy rather than display. The steam blurs the contours of the scene, making atmosphere as much the subject as the figure within it.
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.
Vapor (Yuge) was created by Torii Kotondo (鳥居言人) in 1929.
Vapor (Yuge) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1929).
Vapor (Yuge) depicts nude, bijin-ga, and daily life.
