Young woman with a tobacco pipe

Category

Library Item

Item no

15168

Title

Young woman with a tobacco pipe

Description

A young woman kneels on tatami mats whilst holding a tobacco pipe. She is wearing a simple blue kimono and a yellow and pink 'obi' (Japanese sash). She is leaning on a wooden brazier with a bell-shaped teapot on it.
The picture was taken indoors in the photographer's studio. A paulownia chest stands behind her with a tea tray and cups on it. On the right-hand side of the picture is a white screen decorated with small vertical pictures and a hand fan.
The photograph has been hand tinted with great care; although the colours are slightly faded. The girl's lips and cheeks have been delicately coloured, as well as the props around her. The rest of the photograph has been left in black and white.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

14 x 9.5 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Art and Design Library

This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.

This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers.

This picture is another example demonstrating how the photographer used props to recreate a traditional Japanese interior. Props were often used by early photographers in Japan and Stillfried would use those visible in this photograph regularly. For instance, the decorated screen in the background was also used in another photograph in the Henry Dyer collection, showing a young woman playing the koto (item no. 15142). The screen and the wooden chest make the background look more interesting and give the composition an air of domestic authenticity. A Westerner visiting a traditional Japanese house would have encountered this type of furniture.

Although young women did not usually smoke, Stillfried decided to include a pipe in the composition of this picture. This type of pipe was called 'kiseru' and came in many different shapes and sizes. The word 'kiseru' comes from the Cambodian 'khsier', which means tube. These pipes were made of three different parts: the mouth piece, the long tube through which the smoke went and the bowl where the tobacco was burnt. This type of pipe nearly disappeared in the Taisho period (1912-1926) when smokers adopted paper cigarettes instead.

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Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Garments > Kimonos

People > Adults > Women

Places > Asia > Japan