Comments - This portrait represents the wife of a patriarch of the Ainu, an indigenous people of Japan. Jacoulet painted the wife and her husband from life during a trip to Hokkaido. In his catalog of Jacoulet, Richard Miles states "When translated from watercolor to woodblocks, they took on a dignified luminescence that makes them worthy of comparison with the best of Sharaku." The woman looks up with a slight smile, her eyes fringed with long lashes. She wears a gray robe with a rust-colored collar and white design with delicate line work, her head wrapped in a peach-colored scarf with a scrolling design that trails over her shoulder. She wears slender gold mica earrings, and a colorful beaded necklace. A shimmering slate gray mica background provides an attractive background for the figure. A wonderful image and companion piece to Viel Ainu.

French title - Vielle Aino. Chikabumi. Hokkaido. Japon
English title - Old Ainu Lady. Chikabumi. Hokkaido. Japan
Date - October 28, 1950
Signed - Pencil signed Paul Jacoulet in subject at center left, with red artist's "Owl" seal
Carver - Maeda
Printers - Honda, Uchikawa, Fujii
Edition - 350, fewer than 250 impressions