Kolbe's "Japanese Woman" combines the motifs of the crouching nude and the depiction of Asian women, which were particularly fashionable at the time. Many artists dealt with the depiction of the then popular Japanese dancers, such as Max Slevogt or Pablo Picasso. Georg Kolbe fits into this theme with his sculpture and at the same time establishes a new conception of figures in his work. Emil Waldmann emphasized the sculpture in his early text about Kolbe as early as 1916: "The Japanese Woman is a work of the highest charm and the finest feeling, chaste in feeling and intimate in the quiet movements. One of those works in which something new suddenly comes over the artist, where his eyes suddenly open and his work regains some of the enthusiasm of a fully consciously experienced spring."