The Taisho Era (1912-1926) saw young habitues of Japan's cafe society challenging and outraging their parents as they danced, smooched and smoked cigarettes, aping their idols of the silver screen. Emblematic of the age was the moga (modan gaaru, or modern girl) with her Western shoes, dresses, makeup and jewelery, and her stylish hair done in a marcel wave.
The moga was escorted by her mobo (modan boi, or modern boy), dapper in the latest Western fashion, but it is the women — then, as now, of endless fascination for the artist — who are mostly portrayed in the exhibition "Taisho Chic" at the Teien Museum.
At that time, Japan had already proven itself adept at mastering Western technology and, in addition to flexing its military muscles, was beginning to look at some of the fun spawned by the Jazz Age in America and Europe. Democracy, socialism and the beginnings of sexual equality were emerging forces, and with basic, nationwide literacy, all classes could participate in a lively intellectual climate where entrenched beliefs and values were being questioned in the light of imported Western ideas.
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