Vintage Japanese Kappazuri Print Yoshitoshi Mori Bijin with Kiseru Smoking Beauty 1984 Ed 31/90

Yoshitoshi Mori (森義利, 1898–1992) — Bijin with kiseru (美人煙草) — kappazuri stencil print, 1984, edition 31/90

A kneeling bijin raises a long kiseru (煙管) pipe to her lips, glancing back sharply over her shoulder. In her right hand she holds a blue-and-white cloth; beyond her knee sits a tabakobon (煙草盆), the low tobacco tray fitted with ash container and ember pot that was a fixture of fashionable Edo interiors. Her kimono is rendered in Mori's bold flat planes: a dark ground with sakura and hanabishi repeat patterns, russet and persimmon lining, blue-and-white floral sleeve lining. No ground line or background — the figure reads as pure silhouette and pattern against the bare paper, a compositional approach that reflects Mori's deep roots in kimono dyeing and stencil textile craft. The smoking beauty (煙草美人, tabako bijin) is a recurring type in ukiyo-e and its modern descendants, combining sensuality, leisure, and the accoutrements of urban Edo taste. Numbered 31/90 lower left; signed Y. Mori '84 with red artist's seal lower right. Presented in a black wood frame with double mat and glass.

Yoshitoshi Mori (森義利, 1898–1992) was born in Tokyo and trained at the Kawabata School of Fine Arts before spending the early decades of his career as a textile designer and kimono fabric dyer. He did not turn to printmaking until nearly sixty, but went on to produce an enormous body of kappazuri (stencil-print) work that earned him an international reputation. Kappazuri substitutes hand-cut stencils for carved woodblocks, applying each color through a separate stencil — a technique rooted in traditional katazome textile dyeing. Mori's prints draw almost exclusively on traditional subjects — kabuki actors, courtesans, craftsmen, folk festival figures — rendered in his distinctive flat, bold, expressively distorted style. His work is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In 1984 — the year this print was made — he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland. He continued exhibiting until shortly before his death in Tokyo in 1992.

• Title: Kabuki Figure with Janome Umbrella (Benton Kozu)
• Artist: Yoshitoshi Mori (森義利, 1898–1992)
• Medium: Kappazuri stencil print on wove paper
• Date: 1984 (Shōwa 59)
• Edition: 86/90
• Dimensions (image): approx. 17.5" W × 11.75" H (44 × 30 cm); framed approx. 24" H × 20" W
• Condition: Please see photos for details.