Present-day forms

Ima Sugata (Present-day forms) was the title under which Shoun issued one of the central series of his career, a sequence of bijin-ga depicting contemporary women in the dress and hairstyles of late Meiji and Taisho Japan. Unlike the stylized beauties of earlier ukiyo-e, these figures wear identifiable kimono patterns, momoware or other contemporary coiffures, and are shown in domestic or genre situations recognizable to viewers of the period. Compositionally the prints favor a single standing or seated figure against a simple ground, with the patterning of the textile carrying much of the visual interest — a structure that allowed printers to demonstrate karazuri (gauffrage) on collars and obi alongside the careful registration of multiple color blocks on patterned garments. The series situates Shoun within the late phase of traditional ukiyo-e publishing, just before the shin-hanga movement formalized a comparable subject in different commercial channels.