Young Woman Blowing a Glass Pipe

Data

Young Woman Blowing a Glass Pipe
Print   (Part of the set: Utamaro Famous Beauties)

Kitagawa Utamaro
Mainichi Newspaper
1980s

27.00 cm
40.70 cm

2016
00009-001
https://mokuhankan.com/collection/index.php?id_for_display=00009-001

Print is Public Domain; Photography is:   Creative Commons License

Description

This print, Poppin o Fuku Musume, shows a young woman, probably the daughter of an upper middle-class merchant, blowing a glass pipe known as a poppen (occasionally also spelled popen or poppin) or biidoro (from the Portuguese word "vidro" meaning "glass"). Poppens were exotic toys which made different noises depending on whether air was blown or sucked through them (the word "poppen" is onomatopoeic of the sound when air is first blown then sucked through the toy). Poppens were extremely popular in Japan during the early 1790s, when Utamaro is believed to have designed this print.

The print appears in two of Utamaro's print series, Fujin Sōgaku Jittai ("Ten Physiognomies of Women") and Fujo Ninsō Juppin ("Ten Classes of Women's Physiognomy"), but from the title in the upper right we can tell that this particular print is from the latter series.

Please refer back to the description of this set as a whole to find more information on other aspects of this print.

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