Reflection of the Period: Tenpo (1830-1843)

Chikanobu’s name derives from a combination of his original surname, Hashimoto, and that of his teacher Kunichika. It was traditional for students to inherit the name of their teacher. Such transmission of both skill and reputation from teacher to student had formed a fundamental part of print culture since the seventeenth century. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, new technologies such as lithography and even photography were quickly displacing the once pervasive woodblock print. The printing of this large series of historical beauties by the publisher Matsuki Heikichi represents one of the last such endeavors before Japanese print culture was entirely transformed in the twentieth century.

The use of the work "mirror" or kagami in the title of this print series is not uncommon in the history of East Asia. Since ancient times in China, the mirror was employed as a metaphor for looking at the past, usually with a sense of longing for better times. In each image, a woman is depicted in the fashionable clothing and hairstyle of a particular era of past or present-day Japan. In the background is a separate scene, usually featuring an old, tattered print. This "print-within-a-print" scene is meant to further evoke the era of the beauty depicted.

In the two prints depicting the Meiji era, a naval battle from the Sino-Japanese War and the new Tokyo Imperial Palace are shown. These represent two integral aspects of the Meiji period, the ascendency of the Emperor and the beginning of Japanese political expansion in East Asia.