Woman wearing necklace

The 1955 Woman Wearing Necklace, edition 1 of 100—the very first impression from a substantial print run—shows Azechi in the bijin-adjacent figure territory he occasionally visited. A woman wearing a necklace was a subject drawn from decorative portraiture rather than mountain life, the jewelry as compositional detail providing a note of ornamentation uncommon in his primarily utilitarian mountain world. The edition number 1 marks this as the artist's proof-quality first impression, when the block was at its sharpest.