Yoshiwara Courtesans: A New Mirror Comparing the Calligraphy of Beauties (Yoshiwara keisei: Shin bijin awase jihitsu kagami)吉原傾城」新美人合自筆鏡

Kitao Masanobu (Santō Kyōden) 北尾政演 (山東京伝)

Two-page spread from a book, featuring a traditional Japanese woodblock print. The pages are yellowed and have a black border around them. There are six women depicted in traditional Japanese clothing. The women are dressed in kimonos with various patterns, including stripes and florals. One woman on the left side of the left page wears a long white kimono with a red and black patterned kimono over it. She has a black hat on her head. The woman to her right wears a kimono with a floral pattern and holds a book. On the right page, a woman sits on the floor, writing or reading with a brush. She wears a pink and black striped kimono. Behind her, a woman sits cross-legged on a cushion, wearing a brown kimono. On the right side of the right page, a woman in a brown kimono looks at a bird on a branch outside. The background of the left page features a window with many panes. The background of the right page features a tree branch and a bird. There is Japanese text written in black ink throughout the image.

Artwork details

Date:: 1784, first month
Medium:: Polychrome woodblock printed book; ink and color on paper
Culture:: Japan
Dimensions:: 599 × 434 px
Museum record:: View original

Palette

The Actors Ichikawa Komazo II as Minamoto no Yorimasa (right), Matsumoto Koshiro II as Osada no Taro Kagemune Disguised as Yatsurugi Zaemon (center), and Ichikawa Danzo III as I no Hayata Tadazumi (left), In the Play Nue no Mori Ichiyo no Mato, Performed at the Nakamura Theater in the Eleventh Month, 1770

Twenty-four Illustrations of Poems of the Thirty-six Poets

Cooling off at Sashiye

Two Women and a Girl Feeding a Crane at the Verandah

The Bride Changing Clothes (Iro-naoshi), the fifth sheet of the series "Marriage in Brocade Prints, the Carriage of the Virtuous Woman (Konrei nishiki misao-guruma)"

Scene at the Ishido Mansion (Ishido yakata no dan), from the series "Go Taiheiki Shiraishi Banashi"

Attire

Kiyomizu Komachi from the series Little Seedlings: Seven Komachi

The Ceremonial Sake (Konrei sakazuki), the fourth sheet of the series "Marriage in Brocade Prints, the Carriage of the Virtuous Woman (Konrei nishiki misao-guruma)"