Tipsy, from the series “Modern Styles of Women”

With her slick bob, short skirts, and unprecedented levels of personal autonomy, the figure of the “modern girl” both scandalized and fascinated early 20th-century Japanese society. Like the flapper in the West, she embodied fears and excitement about rapid modernization and shifting gender roles. Commercial print artists, catering to nostalgia for pre-modern Japan among both local and foreign collectors, tended to portray women as demure creatures with modestly averted eyes. In contrast, Kobayakawa Kiyoshi’s modern girl unabashedly holds the viewer’s gaze. Printed in lavish color and with deluxe finishes—note that the cocktail glass is frosted with shimmering powdered mica—Tipsy"is no less captivating a vision of Japan’s jazz age today than when it was first issued.