
Half-naked woman in Genroku mode
- Medium:
- Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
- Image courtesy of
- Saru Gallery
Description
The Genroku era (1688-1704) is associated with the flowering of urban ukiyo culture in Edo and Kyoto and with the elaborate kosode garments worn by the courtesans and townswomen who became the principal subjects of early bijin-ga. Hiratsuka's title situates a partially disrobed figure within that historical mode, reinterpreting the bijin subject through sosaku-hanga rather than the divided-labor system of Edo-period ukiyo-e. The print would be self-designed, self-carved, and self-printed, in keeping with the movement's central principle. Figure work is comparatively uncommon in Hiratsuka's catalogue, which leans heavily toward temple architecture, landscape, and botanical study; the body offers a different problem for his blocky, high-contrast carving idiom, which favors planar mass over the linear contour traditionally used for bijin-ga skin and drapery. The result reads as a modernist rephrasing of an older pictorial type rather than a direct continuation of it.
More Prints by Hiratsuka Un'ichi
More Nude Prints

Tsuta Hot Springs in Mutsu Province (Mutsu Tsuta onsen), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, First Series (Tabi miyage dai isshu)"
Mutsu Tsuta onsen
1919
Color woodblock print; oban

Namari Spa, Iwate Prefecture (Iwate ken Namari onsen)
1943
Color woodblock print

Autumn at the Arayu Hot Spring, Shiobara
Autumn 1920
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper

Arifuku Spa, Iwami, from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Third Series" (Tabi miyage dai sanshu, Iwami Arifuku onsen)
1924
Color woodblock print
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Half-naked woman in Genroku mode was created by Hiratsuka Un'ichi (平塚運一).
Half-naked woman in Genroku mode depicts nude.



