Seiro Bijin Awase Sugata Kagami|Mirror of the Beautiful Women of the Yoshiwara Brothels
Medium
Polychrome woodblock printed book; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
11 × 7 1/4 × 5/8 in. (27.9 × 18.4 × 1.6 cm)
Classification
Illustrated Books
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1918
Accession Number
JIB31
Tags
Art Historical Context
Created in 1776 during Japan’s Edo period, *Seiro Bijin Awase Sugata Kagami* (Mirror of the Beautiful Women of the Yoshiwara Brothels) a landmark polychrome woodblock-printed book. It represents a collaboration between Kitao Shigemasa and Katsukawa Shunshō, two leading ukiyo-e masters. The album offers an elegant visual guide to the celebrated courtesans of Yoshiwara, Edo’s licensed pleasure district, capturing their grace, fashion, and daily activities through delicate lines and vibrant colors printed on paper. This work holds artistic significance as one of the earliest fully colored illust...
About the Artist
Kitao Shigemasa|Katsukawa Shunshō 勝川春章 · 1739–1820
Kitao Shigemasa (1739–1820), born in the bustling Nihonbashi district of Edo (modern Tokyo), emerged as a pivotal figure in ukiyo-e woodblock printing during Japan's Edo period. The eldest son of the bookseller Suharaya Mohei—from a lineage of publishers—Shigemasa, originally named Kitabatake Tarōkichi, was immersed in the world of printing from youth. Largely self-taught, he later studied under t...