Young Woman Blowing a Popen (glass noisemaker), from the series “Ten Classes of Women’s Physiognomy” (Fujo ninsō juppen)

Description

A young woman blows a glass popen held to her lips, wearing a pink checked robe with a green obi beneath a black coiffure. The small instrument gives the close portrait an immediate activity, joining appearance to a sound implied rather than heard. Kitagawa Utamaro makes the figure’s attention to this unusual object the particular center of the encounter.

Dating to around 1792–93, the ink-and-color woodblock print belongs to the series Ten Classes of Women’s Physiognomy. The individual image retains the immediacy of its subject within that wider project. Its appeal lies in a fleeting act preserved for continued looking, where a small glass object can give a portrait-like presence a distinct human focus without requiring an elaborate narrative.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.