Hairdressing — 髪結

"Hairdressing" (髪結, kamiyui) depicts the elaborate process of dressing a woman's hair in traditional Japanese style — a subject with deep roots in the bijin-ga genre, from Utamaro's celebrated hair-dressing images through Shuntei's Meiji-period version. The professional hair-dresser (or an assistant) arranging a woman's hair required complex specialized knowledge: the specific coiffure styles associated with different social roles and occasions, the tools and techniques involved, the relationship between dresser and subject. Shuntei renders this ritual with his characteristic observational precision.