One Person, Six Expressions (Hitori rokumenso)

A single face presents six different expressions — joy, sorrow, anger, fear, surprise, and contemplation — in this 1884 oban print, a formal physiognomic study of emotional states rendered in the mode of Edo-period mie (theatrical pose) paintings and early-Meiji caricature. The title Hitori rokumenso literally means "One person, six facial expressions," and the print demonstrates Kiyochika's facility with figure work and his interest in the theatrical exaggeration of emotion that connected traditional Kabuki aesthetics to the Western caricature he had absorbed.