Woman at a Mirror

Catalog note / 解説

Kikukawa Eizan (1787-1867) produced many superior prints of beautiful women. Some scholars have suggested that this series Edo Beauties takes the eleventh-century Japanese novel 'The Tale Of Genji' as its theme, and thus it is surmised that there may have been 54 sheets to it to correspond to the number of chapters in the novel. However, apart from this work, only four prints from the series are known and many may not have been published. The woman depicted here with a side comb in her hair may be about to apply her makeup. On the mirror stand is a packet of famous face powder. Materials: Woodblock print on paper