Description
In Shadows on the Shoji, Kitagawa Utamaro organizes an interior around figures on either side of a screen. A seated person occupies the lower left, while a standing woman appears toward the center and right. Shadows show through the lattice above, introducing another kind of human presence to a room whose surfaces both reveal and conceal.
Made in the 1790s, the work is an ink-and-color woodblock print. The shoji’s grid gives a firm structure to the scene, contrasting visible bodies with the less definite forms behind its translucent surface. Utamaro makes a familiar room divider the source of pictorial interest, allowing space, light and privacy to interact. The restrained setting invites close attention to the difference between seeing a person directly and recognizing a presence through a shadow.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.
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