Asanegami Print

A bit of a saucy babe: ‘Asanegami’ or ‘Morning Hair’ by the artist Torii Kotondo. This image was considered so wildly provocative in 1930s Japan that it was banned from further publication or circulation. Look at her, all wisps of hair and trailing kimono. She puts Pamela Anderson to shame!

Torii Kotondo is considered one of the great masters of Shin-hanga, a 20th Century Japanese art movement which revitalised the traditional ukiyo-e style rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods. Inspired by European Impressionism, Shin-hanga incorporated Western elements such as the effects of light and the expression of individual moods, but focused on traditional Japanese themes: landscapes (fukeiga), famous places (meishō), beautiful women (bijinga), kabuki actors (yakusha-e), and birds-and-flowers (kachō-e).