JAPANESE
Lip colour set and case, Itabeni
(mid 19th century)

Medium
metal, cotton

Measurements
2.8 × 5.7 × 1.4 cm (case) 3.2 × 1.7 × 0.7 cm (boxes each)

Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Noriaki Kaneko, 2025

Gallery location
Not on display

About this work

Before the invention of lip colour in lipstick format at the end of the nineteenth century, and the subsequent introduction of lipstick to Japan in the early twentieth century, women applied coloured oil paste to their lips using a small brush or spatula-like spoon. Decorative reusable small lip-colour boxes, itabeni, were prized personal possessions that could be taken by their owners to lip-oil shops to be filled with colours on request. This tiny, fabric purse-shaped satchel with block-printing design, sarasa, contains three small boxes for a selection of different-coloured oils.

Artwork Details

Place/s of Execution
Japan

Accession Number
2025.701

Department
Asian Art

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JAPANESE Lip colour set and case, Itabeni (mid 19th century)

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JAPANESE
Lip colour set and case, Itabeni
(mid 19th century)