Beauties and Actors

Torii Kiyonaga

Women Watching a Girl Dance on Shells

1784

Color woodblock print, 36.3 × 24.8 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art

A small girl dances on a pair of shells, the kind also used as game pieces, as a woman plays the shamisen.

• His women are taller and more adult than the slight figures of the 1760s.
• Dancing marked festival days and other celebrations.
• Tall onlookers frame the small dancer, stressing her size.

Shamisen

A three-stringed plucked lute, the usual accompaniment for song and dance.

Image: Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access · CC0