Spring

In a bright spring light, a girl is combing her little sister's hair, both seated on a straw mat in a wheat field. The kitten sleeping on the younger girl's lap and the butterflies flying here and there express the relaxed atmosphere of the season. In the spring of the year in which Insho painted this work, he was in convalescence in Beppu in Kyushu. Still, he did preparatory work there and presented this painting at the Teiten exhibition in the autumn. The clear and simple expression suggests the influence of the neo-classic trend that emerged in the Japanese painting circles during the first years of the Showa era.