A Parade of Courtesans
Hishikawa Moronobu (Japanese, (?)-1694)
c. 1690
- Medium
- Woodblock print; sumizuri-e, kakemono yoko-e
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 31 × 68 cm (12 1/4 × 26 13/16 in.)
- Culture
- Japan
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
A group of courtesans parade with servants carrying umbrellas. The print appears to depict a typical scene in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters of Edo. However, a figure on the left is identified as one of the legendary Soga brothers, 12th-century heroes whose story of valor is retold in countless Kabuki plays. It is possible that this print may depict a scene from an unidentified Soga brothers drama.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
