BIJINGA - "Pictures of Beautiful Women"

BIJINGA has become generic term for pictures of beautiful women in Japanese art, especially in woodblock printing of the UKIYO-E genre, which in most of cases eludes western comprehension and predate photography. The term can also be used for modern media, provided they conform to a somewhat classic representation of a woman, usually depicted wearing a kimono.

BIJIN literally means ‘beautiful person’. However, from the Meiji Reform to today: ‘beautiful woman’.

During my studies in the Hanamachi I often struggle with this kind of concept. Looking at past BIJINGA masterpieces it is clear that Japanese artists had or still have a completely different interpretation, "what is beautiful", far from the standards of Western aesthetics traditions.

Today’s Tayuu picture performing the Tea Ceremony is a classic example of this kind of knowledge conflict; as for Japanese artists the picture above will be a Bijinga.

Sometime ago I had the pleasure to interview a Japanese philosopher who explained me: “That is the problem in working through this notion of bijin,

“In the end, there is never a sense that it can be represented artistically.”
“Bijin exist in language, but at the same time inaccessible through language".