Hanga
Half-naked woman in Genroku mode by Hiratsuka Un'ichi — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

Half-naked woman in Genroku mode

by Hiratsuka Un'ichi

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

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.