Woman Combing Her Hair

A half-dressed woman draws a comb through her long black hair, her body turned in a graceful spiral against a plain mica-dusted ground. Hashiguchi Goyō, who oversaw every stage of his prints with obsessive care and completed only a handful before his early death, is regarded as the greatest shin-hanga master of bijin-ga. Modeled on the teahouse waitress Kodaira Tomi, this design updates the tradition of Utamaro for the twentieth century, combining classical grace with a new naturalism of flesh and gesture. It is his most celebrated work, held in fine impressions at the British Museum and the Toledo Museum of Art.