Unravelled Hair — みだれ髪

Unravelled Hair — みだれ髪, preserved through the ukiyo-e.org archive, carries one of the most resonant titles in Meiji-era cultural history. Midaregami (Tangled Hair) was the famous 1901 poetry collection by Yosano Akiko, a defining work of modern Japanese literature that shocked its readers with frank expressions of female desire. Tomioka Eisen's image of unravelled hair places him at the heart of Meiji literary culture, where bijin-ga and the new poetry were deeply intertwined. Loose, falling hair carries strong erotic and emotional associations in Japanese visual culture, and the title situates the print within a broader Meiji conversation about female interiority, modern selfhood, and the changing position of women in Japanese society.