Maru-mage

The maru-mage—the rounded married woman's coiffure worn by wives throughout the Edo and Meiji periods—is the subject of this undated bijin-ga, in which a woman is shown with this distinctive hairstyle that signaled her marital status. Shinsui produced numerous prints organized around specific hairstyle types, treating each coiffure as both a formal compositional element and a social marker. The maru-mage had largely fallen out of practical use by the Showa period, making Shinsui's depictions of it partly historical in character.