Art of Ukiyoe
Fine Japanese Prints
Masterpieces and rarities, from early Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga, all guaranteed original.
Our Newest
Utagawa Sadahide
Operating the Giant Puppet in the Grounds of Asakusa Kinryuzan (1847)
歌川貞秀
浅草金龙山境内巨型机关人形之图 (1847年)
Elizabeth Keith (1887-1956)
The Chinese Lady
Featured Print:
Portrait of a Young Chinese Woman
She’s Chinese, in the latest fashions of 1930’s, but she’s indisputably a moga --a “modern girl,” in the Japanese slang of the time.
There are many wonderful things about this print by Elizabeth Keith. To begin with, it may be one of as few as 25 that were ever printed. The subject smiles right at you, posing elegently and confidently, with classic Chinese paintings behind her. No one knows who she is, but scholars believe this was a private commission for her family.
But something else touches my heart about this print. Something unlike any other Ukiyoe or Shin Hanga.
She looks like me, Sharon.
I’m not being egotistical — so many people have told me. That’s why I feel a certain strange but deep fondness for this woman, perhaps just a few years younger than I am. We are both Chinese ladies, we both have a penchant for classic Qipao dresses, and I’d like to think I look at the world with that same mix of youthful confidence and joy.
I know I try to.
Elizabeth Keith was born in Scotland and came to Japan in 1915. She used Tokyo as her home base while travelling extensively around Asia. Shozaburo Watanabe, the father of Shin Hanga, published roughly 100 of her designs.
There are so many wonderful things here. The dress’ intricate lines are accentuated by a generous helping of glittering mica. Her hair styled in soft finger waves almost shines in its rich black pigmentation. The scholar Richard Miles believes this to be among Keith’s rarest prints, and that it was a gift to the sitter’s family and points out, by way of evidence, that the extensive mica in the dress was unique in Keith’s ouvre.
Did Keith, a Western woman, succeed in capturing this lovely creature without defaulting to cliché or “othering” her as a charming Asian curiosity? I think so. There is a hint of romantic exoticism, but it is done, I believe, with affection.
I will never stop smiling at this print, and the young woman with so many adventures ahead of her who is smiling back at me — and the world.
Sharon
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