Sisters

Depicted are sisters wearing purple kimonos of differing designs on two identical screens. This is part of the Women Series, following Three Women and Red Clothes. At the 3rd Japan Fine Arts Exhibition the following year, Akino also painted the figure of a standing woman, Bell Flower, expressing the creases of the kimono and the woman's facial features using fine lines. After failing to be selected for the 12th Imperial Exhibition, Akino moved on to more moderate subjects and doing work in traditional categories using women or children as models. Considering the great change in her painting style after the 1948 formation of the Sozo Bijutsu group, it could be said that during her government-sponsored exhibitions period, Akino was continuously experimenting in the space between the traditional and the creative.