Two young Japanese women stand pressed close beneath pale pink cherry blossoms, their bodies arranged almost as a single shape against a saturated blue ground. Both wear softly patterned morning kimonos opened low at the chest, one in greenish tones and the other in warmer brown-gold, with thick obi belts tied behind them like sculptural wings. Their skin is pale, their cheeks lightly flushed, and their black hair is dressed in smooth, glossy coils pinned with blossoms. They face us calmly, almost solemnly, but their hands meet at the center in a gesture that feels private and deliberate. The plate’s printed caption reads PETITES_AMIES, and the vertical cartouche bears the artist’s Japanese name, 英一蝶 (Hana Itchō known as Hanabusa Itchō). The image is decorative, but not distant as the closeness of their bodies, the touch of their joined hands, and the mirrored elegance of their pose make the pair feel intimate and composed. The original text around this illustration sharpens that intimacy into meaning. The women are introduced as “enlacées ainsi” (entwined like that) to hold each other. A few pages later, the narrator insists, “Elles ne se quittent jamais” or they never leave one another. Another line says they are not deceived by love, but have outwitted it and hold it “captif sur leurs lèvres pareilles” (captive on their matching lips). Those phrases transform the image from a pretty Belle Époque fantasy into a vision of feminine attachment imagined as mutual pleasure, refuge, and alliance. At the same time, the work belongs to a French japoniste book culture that stylized Japan for Parisian readers, so its beauty is inseparable from European performance and projection. That tension is part of its power now. The print offers cherry blossoms, elegance, and theatrical grace, but also a rare early-20th-century image in which two women appear not merely adjacent, but bound to one another by touch, companionship, and choice.
“Petites Amies” (Girlfriends) by 英一蝶 / Hanabusa Itchō (Japanese) - Color engraving / 1912 - Poupée japonaise (Paris, France) #WomenInArt #英一蝶 #HanabusaIttcho #hanabusa #挿絵#BookIllustration #Japonisme #ジャポニスム #art #artText #artwork #美人画 #JapaneseArt #JapaneseArtist #日本美術 #百合 #BelleEpoque #1910sArt
