Kureha of Gakuiseya, from Selection of Beauties from the Pleasure Quarters
Medium
color woodblock print
Dimensions
21.6 × 14.6 cm
Classification
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift from J. H. Wade
Accession Number
1921.1282
Tags
male
About this artwork
This print of a courtesan named Kureha reading a letter comes from a five-volume series of picture books that Suzuki Harunobu designed with images of 166 beautiful courtesans of the Edo (now Tokyo) pleasure district. In intact copies of the fourth volume, of which this is a trimmed page, Kureha is the fifth and final courtesan representing her house, Gakuiseya; the house crest is a roundel formed of pine branches, seen on her outer robe’s sleeve. All poems in the volume are autumnal, and Kureha’...