Maiko with Cranes

Hashimoto Meiji was from the city of Hamada in Shimane Prefecture. After World War II, Hashimoto Meiji established his own style, distinctive for its thick lines and clear colors. This style indicated a new direction for the Japanese art world. In this florid composition, Meiji combines the two motifs in which he specialized most—apprentice geisha and cranes—in the same picture. In the production of this composition, Meiji had visited the Kushiro wetland in Hokkaido in order to observe the red-crowned crane. The background is a semi-abstract depiction that calls to mind a flowing river.