Courtesan Likened to the Chinese Sage Zhang Guolao (Japanese: Chokaro)
c. 1715
Medium
Hand-colored woodblock print; o-oban, tan-e
Dimensions
53.4 × 30.9 cm (21 1/16 × 12 3/16 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
21410
Art Historical Context
In the vibrant world of Edo-period Japan (1603–1868), Okumura Masanobu's *Courtesan Likened to the Chinese Sage Zhang Guol (Chokaro)*, created around 1715, captures the playful spirit of ukiyo, the "pictures of the floating world." This hand-colored woodblock print, as a tan-e for its vivid, manually applied colors, depicts a glamorous courtesan from the Yoshiwara pleasure district humorously compared to the Taoist immortal Zhang Guolao—one of the Eight Immortals famed for riding a donkey backward. Such bijin-ga (images of beautiful women) blended elite cultural references with everyday urban ...
About the Artist
Okumura Masanobu · 1686–1764
Japanese, 1686–1764