Western culture is replete with empowering images of women, from the warrior Amazons of Greek mythology to Wagnerian Valkyries to computer game and movie heroine Lara Croft. Western women are spoiled for choice when it comes to assertive role models. Japan, on the other hand, has always cherished a more genteel ideal of femininity. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the works of Yumeji Takehisa (1884-1934), 300 of which are currently on display at the Urawa Art Museum.

The essence of Yumeji's work is in his depictions of women, which, although graceful and elegant, present the female as a swooning, wilting, wide-eyed and passive creature. Items from the Kawamura collection on display here present a good cross section of his life's work, including prints, watercolors, inks, oils, book illustrations and even gift-wrapping paper designs.

When Yumeji, the son of a liquor merchant, started his artistic career in the late Meiji Era, Japanese art was going through an identity crisis. While some artists readily embraced foreign influences and started aping the techniques, fashions and lifestyles of the Parisian Left Bank, others clung steadfastly to the traditions of Japanese art, creating the nihonga movement that cherished the styles, subjects and materials of the past. Yumeji chose a more invidualistic middle path, receptive to foreign artistic influences and techniques, while clinging to traditional subject matter and atmosphere.