Playing Cards

"Playing Cards" (1904) depicts women engaged in card playing — whether the traditional Japanese karuta card games or the Western-style playing cards that had become fashionable in Meiji Japan. Card play was a significant social activity in Japanese domestic life, and the specific game being played would have been immediately recognizable to contemporary viewers. Shuntei renders the social scene of a card game in progress: the gathered players, the cards arranged on the playing surface, the focused attention and social interaction the game required.