Styles of Contemporary Make-up: no. 4, Pupil of the Eye (Kindaijisesho no uchi: Hitomi)

"Styles of Contemporary Make-up: no. 4, Pupil of the Eye" (Kindaijisesho no uchi: Hitomi), from 1931, is the fourth design in Kobayakawa's celebrated series, bringing the close-focus eye study into dialogue with its companions as part of a systematic exploration of the modern woman's face. The pupil — hitomi — is the compositional and conceptual center of the print, that dark circle which is simultaneously anatomical fact, reflective mirror, and poetic trope. Its place in the series as the fourth image suggests a progression from surface to depth, from makeup to what lies beneath it.