Fukagawa Hachiman no Shin Fuji, from the series Twelve Views of Modern Beauties (Imayô bijin jûni kei) 

Curator: This print is titled "Fukagawa Hachiman no Shin Fuji, from the series Twelve Views of Modern Beauties" by Keisai Eisen. It's a woodcut print, very much in the ukiyo-e style. Editor: It has such an intimate, almost voyeuristic feel. Like stumbling upon someone’s private ritual. The woman’s bent posture and focused gaze have something dreamlike about them, and she doesn't meet our eye, even though the entire image seems so staged. Curator: Right, and Eisen was well-known for these images of beautiful women. This series specifically situates these modern beauties, as they were called, in various locales. Editor: But is she looking at a reflection? Or applying the paint to her lips with a tiny brush? It looks so precise! Curator: Probably a mirror, and yes, the detail is quite amazing considering it’s a woodblock print. You can see how carefully they’ve captured her elaborate hairstyle, her patterned robe. And even that small landscape painting above is full of life! Editor: The composition is so cleverly done, almost a study in rectangles. There’s the print itself, the painted scroll, and her kimono. It creates this layering effect, almost as if the image is commenting on image-making. And what to make of that idyllic natural scene above her while she makes up in front of what looks like a dark, stark void on the left! Curator: Ukiyo-e prints, despite their artistic beauty, often had very public functions: advertising courtesans, theatrical events. It reminds us of the public lives of private rituals and domestic beauty, if you like. This tension makes them quite compelling. Editor: Absolutely. This print, it’s got that strange push and pull. On one hand, we marvel at its aesthetics, and then we're confronted with these power dynamics, or at the commodification of beauty. What does she think, I wonder? Curator: It truly makes one consider how our understanding of the art depends on where, as they say, one stands and at what time. Editor: Beautiful, isn’t it? A fascinating window onto another world—and a funhouse mirror reflection of our own.