This work is a collection of the original cover illustrations for the January to December 1933 issues of the longstanding Japanese women’s magazine Fujin koron (Women’s Review). Launched by Chuo Koron publishing company in 1916, the magazine has advocated for women’s liberation and independence since its beginning. Covering issues concerning women, schoolgirls, and the family, the magazine gained support primarily from intellectual women in Japan. Its first issue included the special features “The Road Modern Women Should Take,” “The Women’s Movement and Japanese Women,” and “The Suitable Age for Japanese Women to Marry.” Now in its 1596th issue, the magazine has consistently addressed themes relevant to women, such as marriage, work, childrearing, love, sex, and health, which first became popular in Japan with the renowned “Maternity Protection Debates” between Yosano Akiko and Hiratsuka Raicho between 1918–1919. In 1931, Togo Seiji designed the cover lettering, which became the archetype for the magazine’s covers to this day. In the 1960s, the magazine replaced paintings with photographs for its covers, and the early series that combined photographs of the artworks equivalent of National Treasures shot by the photographer Domon Ken with celebrated actresses led by Yoshinaga Sayuri attracted much attention.

The paintings here are based on closeups of women’s faces, arranged with seasonal motifs such as pine branches and the Japanese flag, cherry blossoms, sea bathing, autumn leaves, and Christmas in lucid colors. Noteworthy is the short hair on most of the women on the covers. Although the 1871 “haircutting edict” (in which men were required to cut off their topknots) had not been thoroughly enforced, by 1885, the Women’s Chignon Association, which took a critical stance on traditional Japanese women’s hairstyle, was established. Traditional hairstyles, which were time-consuming to arrange and not frequently washed, came to be seen as unhygienic, and the “chignon” (sokuhatsu), based on Western women’s hairstyles, was introduced as a fashionable and practical alternative. The chignon, which could be arranged by oneself, easily undone when going to bed, and washed at any time, became hugely popular. Various styles came to be devised, such as the “actress hair parted on one side” (shichisan joyu mage), started by the Imperial Theater actresses and the “ear-hiding” (mimi kakushi) hairdo, in which the hair is wavy and covered the ears.

When viewing these women illustrated by Insho, the popular term “modern girl” (modan ga-ru) from the Taisho to early Showa eras, around the 1920s, comes to mind. Abbreviated moga, the “modern girl” signified women sporting Western-style clothes and short hair, which attracted attention as a new fashion trend in Tokyo, after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Though the moga took on the image of frivolous, unchaste hedonists, the media and advertisements of the time widely presented them as symbols of refined femininity. In an age when women were achieving significant advancements in society such as the recruitment of Japan’s inaugural air girls (flight attendants) in the previous year, the models portrayed by Insho on the covers of the Fujin Koron must have been perceived as emblematic of a modern lifestyle for women. Domoto Insho was a darling of the Japanese art world, who was appointed as a member of the review committee for the 5th Imperial Art Academy Exhibition at the unprecedented young age of 33, after completing his studies at the Kyoto Municipal School of Painting in 1924. The free, unconventional concept and innovative expressions of this young artist likely suited the tastes of the time.

Domoto Insho (nihonga painter; 1891–1975)
Nihonga painter from Kyoto. Insho graduated from the Kyoto City School of Arts and Crafts and initially worked in textile design, but later studied nihonga under Nishiyama Suisho at the Kyoto Municipal School of Painting and Shoko-sha, Suisho’s private painting school. Insho worked in a variety of media and styles, including sculpture and craft. He earned a reputation through many commissions for large scale and grandiose sliding door and wall paintings at distinguished Buddhist temples such as Daitokuji, Ninnaji, Toji and Daigoji temples in Kyoto. Insho established his own painting school Tokyu-sha and was appointed a professor at the Kyoto Municipal School of Painting. From the 1950s onwards, he engaged in abstract painting and exhibited widely in Japan and abroad.