The Japanese aesthetic, fostered amidst the changing glory of nature across the four seasons, plays out in paintings and decorative arts. The kimono, the traditional Japanese costume, is one such decorative art that involves many textile arts, from weaving to dyeing. The kimono reveals different aspects of beauty, depending on the season and their wearer, and it has become one of Japan's unique art forms. People have long been fascinated by images of kimono-clad women. They can be found in early pre-modern period and later genre paintings and ukiyo-e prints.

This exhibition features beautiful women garbed in richly individualistic kimonos, including beauty paintings by Uemura Shōen, Kaburaki Kiyokata and Itō Shinsui, along with examples of ukiyo-e and contemporary Nihonga and Western style paintings. In particular, the female painter Shōen paid close attention to all of the specific details of a kimono outfit, from the textile designs seen on the kimono and obi sash, to the accompanying hairstyle and hair ornaments. A tomboyish young girl seen in Suzuki Harunobu's Picking a Persimmon, Shōen's Snowy Day, depicting a vividly lovely young girl, the sumptuous beauty of a young married woman seen in Kiyokata's Agalloch Pillow, Shinsui's Spring with its elegantly refined modern beauty, and Ogura Yuki's adorable young geisha in Dancing (Maiko Girl, Apprentice Geisha): all reveal the various types of kimono-clad women and their beauty.

The museum hope that visitors will enjoy this exhibition introducing fascinating images of women clad in traditional Japanese kimono, as kimono-wearing opportunities become all the rarer in our modern world.

Highlights of the Exhibition
1st period: (on display 11/12 - 12/25)
    •    Uemura Shōen, Evening, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 1935
    •    Uemura Shōen, Dressed for Spring, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, c. 1936
    •    Uemura Shōen, Fragrance of Spring, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 1940
    •    Uemura Shōen, Composition of a Poem, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 1942
    •    Uemura Shōen, Young Lady, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 1942
    •    Kaburaki Kiyokata, Agalloch Pillow, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 1936
    •    Kaburaki Kiyokata, A National Holiday, Color on Paper, Shōwa Period, c.1955
    •    Itō Shinsui, A Lady in Autumn, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, c. 1947
    •    Itō Shinsui, Beauty in the Snow, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, c. 1949
    •    Itō Shinsui, Spring, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 1952
    •    Ikeda Terukata, Evening Shower, Color on Silk, Taishō Period, 1916
    •    Kobayashi Kokei, River Breeze, Color on Silk, Taishō Period, 1915
    •    Tsuchida Bakusen, Maiko Girl, Color on Silk, Taishō Period, c. 1924
    •    Okumura Togyū, Maiko, Apprentice Geisha, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period
    •    Hashimoto Meiji, Maiko Girl in Autumn, Color on Paper, Shōwa Period, 1976
    •    Ogura Yuki, Dancing (Maiko Girl, Apprentice Geisha), Color on Gold-Leafed Paper, Shōwa Period, 1971
    •    Ogura Yuki, Dancing (Geisha), Color on Gold-Leafed Paper, Shōwa Period, 1972
    •    Yamakawa Shūhō, Geisha, Color on Silk, Early Shōwa Period
    •    Kitazawa Eigetsu, Deep in Thought (Higuchi Ichiyō, A Meiji-period Female Novelist), Color on Paper, Shōwa Period, 1973
    •    Kataoka Tamako, Maiko Girls, Apprentice Geisha, Color on Paper, Shōwa Period, 1982
    •    Morita Kōhei, Poetry Contest by a Winding Stream, Color on Paper, Shōwa Period, 1970
    •    Suzuki Harunobu, Picking a Persimmon, Middle Format (Chūban) Polychrome (Nishiki-e) Woodblock Print on Paper, Edo Period, c. 1766-1767
    •    Hayashi Takeshi, Standing Maiko Girl, Oil on Canvas, Shōwa Period, 1962
*All works are the property of the Yamatane Museum of Art.