Heron Maiden
Nakamura Daizaburô
1920–1925
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink, colors, and gold on silk
- Dimensions
- 158.7 × 57.1 cm (62 1/2 × 22 1/2 in.)
- Genre
- hanging scroll
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
paintinginkgold leafasian arthanging scrollsilk (textile)Japanese (culture or style)
About
The Heron Maiden (sagi musume) is a character from a popular Kabuki play in which a woodcutter saves a white heron, who returns to him in the form of a beautiful young woman. In this depiction of the figure, a doll-like young woman stands under a snow-covered willow tree. The artist added a fine dusting of white pigment to mimic falling snow and applied mica, a metallic mineral, to make the surface of the painting sparkle like a wintry night.