Reflection of the Period: Genroku (1688-1703)

Chikanobu Youshu studied Kano-style painting in Edo (modern Tokyo) and then learned printmaking under two late ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) print masters, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861) and Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1864). Subsequently, he worked under another artist, Yoyohara Kunichika (1835–1900), who was Chikanobu’s contemporary and the leading Osaka ukiyo-e printmaker in the second half of the 19th century.  Acknowledging his indebtedness to this ukiyo-e master, Chikanobu’s used the last character of his teacher’s name to form part of his own signature. In so doing, Chikanobu was following tradition, whereby students inherited the name of their teacher. Such transmission of both skill and reputation from teacher to pupil had formed a fundamental part of print culture in Japan since the 17th century. Kunichika and Chikanobu are known as the last traditional artists of this school of color woodblock printmaking. Ukiyo-e works designed by painters or print artists such as Chikanobu featured rich colors and careful detailing of clothing and setting. First created in the 17th century, this art form originally focused on transient pleasures of the so-called floating world of prostitution, stage, theater, and other entertainments in the pleasure quarters of Edo, Osaka, and other Japanese urban centers.

The use of the word “mirror” in the title of this print and the series from which it comes is not uncommon in the history of East Asia. From ancient times in China, the mirror has served as a metaphor for looking at the past, usually with a sense of longing for better times. In each print from this series , a woman’s bust conveys the fashionable hairstyle and clothing of a particular era of past or present-day Japan. In the background of the image, one sees a separate narrative or historical scene, usually (as here) featuring an old, tattered woodblock print in the style of the period represented in the overlaying image. This “print-within-a-print” format imbues such works with a somewhat self-consciously retrospective character. In this example, the vibrant colors of the details and pastel blue ground of the uppermost image contrast with the black-and-white imagery and age-darkened ochre sheet of the “print” below. This disharmony extends to the subjects—an elegantly attired young woman fixing a costly decorative comb into her elaborate coiffure is paired with the humble activity of a local physician examining the ear of an elderly peasant laborer, who is dressed in rags. But oddly, the woman’s elaborate hairdo overlaps the second image, perhaps to suggest thematic unity between the two parts of the overall composition.