Beauty Looking at Her Image in a Mirror 1830 - 1850

Utagawa Sadakage created this woodblock print called "Beauty Looking at Her Image in a Mirror" in Japan during the 19th century. It depicts a woman in an interior space, gazing into a small mirror. Sadakage worked within the Ukiyo-e tradition, a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Ukiyo-e prints often depicted scenes of daily life, landscapes, and portraits of beautiful women and actors. They were produced for a mass urban audience. This print reflects the era's emphasis on beauty and fashion and the way beauty was represented and consumed through images. The mirror becomes a tool for self-assessment, reflecting the growing importance of personal appearance in urban culture. To fully understand this print, we need to consider the social history of beauty standards and the development of the print market in Japan. We can look at the archives of prints themselves, and the literature and social commentary from the period, to better appreciate its cultural significance.