Life and Death in the Art of Setsuko Mitsuhashi.

This article explores a view of death as it emerges symbolically in the paintings of the Japanese-style painter Setsuko Mitsuhashi, who was affected by incurable disease. After being diagnosed with a malignant tumor, she painted a series based on legends from around Lake Biwa in Japan. She completed the last painting one month before her death. Submitted to close examination are seven paintings from the series, those that depict a woman wearing a red kimono. The author proposes that, in many aspects of their landscapes and especially the progressively expanding lake, these seven paintings express the process by which Setsuko came to terms with the end of her life and expressed a vision of the otherworld. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]