Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III). Modern Physiognomist’s Glass – the Special Kimono Type (tōsei tengankyō osezu deki sō) / Fan print, 1859

Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞], a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代 歌川 豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865)
Signature: Toyokuni ga [豊國画], in toshidama cartouche
Publisher: Iseya Sōemon [伊勢屋惣右衛門] (Japanese, c. 1776–1862); publisher’s logo hanmoto ue [板元上]
Combined censor/date seal: 1859 — kiwame [極] and zodiac sheep (hitsuji; 未) for Ansei 6
Title: 當世天眼鏡 お世づ でき相 (Tōsei tengankyō Osezu deki-sō) Modern Physiognomist’s Glass, the Special Kimono Type, within a physiognomist’s magnifying-glass cartouche

Fan print (uchiwa-e), 235 × 297 mm (sheet). Bust-length portrait of a woman shown in three-quarter view, facing left. She wears an osezu [お世づ] kimono adorned with violet Genji crests (Genji-mon), Buddhist wheel (dharmachakra) motifs, and green aoi (hollyhock) leaves. Her hair is arranged in a formal coiffure, dressed high and secured with a comb and hairpins. She holds a rigid uchiwa fan bearing a cursive poetic inscription*. The background depicts a river with boats and a shrine precinct on the opposite bank, identifiable by a torii gate set before the structure. The term osezu  [お世づ] denotes a kimono of high value that is customarily kept stored away and not worn in ordinary circumstances.

(*) Inscription on the fan, according to Horst Graebner:

れ(?)け(?)あ☆へ  re(?) ke(?) a ☆ he
にいを ni i o
☆しそ(?)す(?)さ  ☆ shi so(?) su(?) sa
くし  kushi
ぬり  nuri
なる  naru
えし  eshi
なてり(?)  na te ri(?)

For comparison, see an Ōban-format print of the 1830s (MFA Boston Accession Number 34.469): Woman Fanning Herself, from the series Types of the Floating World Seen through a Physiognomist's Glass (Ukiyo jinsei tengankyô) 「浮世人精天眼鏡」団扇.

Another print from that series is provided in Sebastian Izzard. Kunisada’s world. — New York: Japan Society, Ukiyo-e Society of America, ©1993, p. 127, № 60 [LIB-2970.2022]:

This series of ten half-length portraits features studies, in the style of Utamaro, of women examined with the magnifying glass of a professional physiognomist. The glass itself appears as the border to the title cartouche. The geisha depicted here wears a simple striped robe of the sort favoured in the Fukagawa section of Edo. The long inscription by the author Santo Kyözan, the younger brother of Santo Kyoden (1761-1816), is a commentary on her type.