【Discover the Feature Exhibition】 Hairstyle Exploration in the Museum

August 23rd (Tue.) ~ October 23rd (Sun.), 2022

Feature Exhibition Room 1

“Keppatsu Zukan”- Hairdressing Scroll created by Gion Seitoku (partial)

  Preparations for this exhibition began last year when I looked through the “Keppatsu Zukan” - a Hairdressing Scroll that was kept in the museum storage room. The scroll depicts many women with excessive yet extremely glamorous hairstyles. It was worthwhile looking up to the names of the hairstyles attached to each figure in the scroll. The artist, Gion Seitoku (circa 1755-1827 - his time of death is somewhere after 1827, but no records can confirm this), was active in and around Kyoto's Hanamachi area (“flower town,” or geisha district) during the late Edo period. His painting style has been identified as being likened to that of Yamaguchi Soken of The Maruyama School. 

 However, his name is seldom mentioned in “Gajin Den” - biographical compilation book. There are many ambiguous reports about the authenticity of his work, making him an extremely mysterious artist. What do you think about Seitoku? Would you be interested to learn some more about him?

 Now, while thinking about how to display this exhibition and from what angles, I remembered a newspaper cutting of Kojima Yoichi, a master of Hakata Dolls. It was an article related to the “Fukuoka Koutou Kai,” which is believed to have brought brightness to postwar Fukuoka in many ways. Koutou means "shiny head" which can mean "bald-headed," and kai means "group." So, here we are talking about a bald-headed group. In this exhibition, I decided to not focus on the general history of hairstyles, but rather on exhibiting a collection of interesting items associated with hairstyles from different places and times.

 Thus, the title of this exhibition is a little unusual, but we hope to convey to you the pleasure of delving into the depths of the museum and encountering unexpected items.

Exhibition view