Beauties and Actors

Kitagawa Utamaro

Takashima Ohisa Using Two Mirrors to Observe Her Coiffure

c. 1795

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 34.9 × 25.1 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Seen from behind, a young woman checks her hairstyle; her face shows only in the mirror before her.

• A second mirror, held behind her head, shows her the back.
• Mirrors let the viewer look over her shoulder, a device Utamaro used in other prints too.
• Real, named townswomen, not only courtesans, became print celebrities.

Image: The Met Open Access · Public domain (Met Open Access)