Bonbon Clock

A "bonbon clock"—the French-derived term (bonbonnière or bonne bonne) for a small, often decorative mantel or shelf clock—appears alongside or in the hands of a woman in this undated bijin-ga. The Western clock as a prop in Japanese beauty prints signaled modernity and cosmopolitan taste, its presence a quiet acknowledgment of how thoroughly Western objects had penetrated Japanese domestic life by the Taisho and early Showa periods. Shinsui's interest in clocks as compositional elements appears in several prints, including his later "Clock and a Beauty" series.