What does this Japanese woman have in her mouth?

May 15, 2021 10:25 AM

In this period illustration, what is the woman doing?

It looks like she is either blowing into it or maybe applying something to her lips. Here is a link to Droplr where I have put an screenshot of whatever she is doing.

Link to illustration of WOMAN WITH SOMETHING TO HER LIPS

posted by Quillcards to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

Using tineye on the image you posted, I found an article about this particular illustration:

The girl depicted in the print appears to be the daughter of an upper middle-class family, and she appears to be blowing a poppin. Blowing on one of these foreign-made glass pipes produces a popping sound, and at the time of this print’s creation, poppin or vidro (Portuguese for glass) were in vogue. By including this fashionable item that was highly coveted by the new money class of merchant townsmen, we see that Utamaro was conscious of current trends.

posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 10:38 AM on May 15, 2021 [11 favorites]

That image is Poppen o fuku musume, or "Young Lady Blowing on a Poppin." It was originally a woodcut by Kitagawa Utamaro, made in 1790.

The object in her mouth - a poppin - is a toy.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 10:40 AM on May 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

A photo of some modern poppins (here called Hojoya Champon): https://japaneight.com/hojoya-festival-in-fukuoka/ -- couldn't find an english-language wikipedia page about these under any of these names. There is an entry on wikipedia in Japanese. (translated link)
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 10:46 AM on May 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

Here is what one sounds like.
posted by vacapinta at 11:19 AM on May 15, 2021 [30 favorites]

Hah, I was going to post this more prosaic example
posted by trig at 11:23 AM on May 15, 2021 [6 favorites]

Oh, I didn't understand that the broad end is closed, not open!
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 1:08 PM on May 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

It's kind of amazing that the glass diaphragm is flexible and never breaks. Are there other things like this, where thin glass flexes? And does this exist in other countries? (It's hard to google for, and I'm not coming up with much)
posted by trig at 1:49 PM on May 15, 2021 [3 favorites]