The Courtesan Takihime and Attendants (from the series New Patterns of Young Greens)
Chōbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756–1829)
1795
- Medium
- color woodblock print
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 38.8 x 26.1 cm (15 1/4 x 10 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
- Credit line
- Gift from J. H. Wade
- 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 Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The designs on Takihime’s outer robe describes fragments of scenery—bridge, castle, wind-filled sails amid clouds—while her attendants’ robes are more conventionally decorated with scattered flowers. The tassels on their sleeves were worn only by young girls. All three wear the triple-fan crest of the Ogiya ("House of Fans") tea house on the shoulders of their kimono. The cartouche in the upper-right corner of the print identifies the series title and time of year. It is New Year, the same season depicted in Engetsudo’s scroll Courtesan and Attendants (see 1985.255). Courtesans strolling through the streets with their attendants were common sights during evening hours in the Yoshiwara.
