White Sake

A girl sits before a tray of colorful rice crackers and holds a cup of white sake, a sweet, low-alcohol fermented rice beverage. Both treats are served on Girls’ Day, celebrated on March 3. The ambience of the traditional occasion is disrupted by her dress. In the early 1900s, European-style dresses displaced the kimono to some extent as everyday attire. The artist also blended the European painting technique of a light source casting shadows, which had only recently been widely introduced, with traditional Japanese painting materials—ink and mineral pigments.