Beauty Looking at Her Image in a Mirror

Utagawa Sadakage

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sadakage, a pupil of Utagawa Kunisada, worked first in Edo and later in Osaka. He specialized in the theme of graceful women. Here, a woman is readjusting her coiffure after meeting a customer. The suggestive spring poem by Rōgatsuan Baiei in the long, rectangular label at the left is entitled "Mokuboji," after a temple whose grounds are famous both for the grave of the abducted child Umewakamaru from the Noh play Sumidagawa and for their cherry blossoms and willow trees.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art