# The Courtesan Takao

- By: Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797-1858)
- Date: ca. 1840
- Medium: Color and gold on silk panel
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: H x W (image): 100.8 × 42.6 cm (39 11/16 × 16 3/4 in)
- Culture: Japanese
- Credit line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://asia.si.edu/object/F1903.63/)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/d2f9f4794c29dd3b6d0c262cf14e9788.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This image of a beauty wrapped in an autumn maple leaf-patterned kimono with a bird streaking through the sky is an unmistakable reference to the courtesan Takao. From the mid-seventeenth through the mid-eighteenth century, eleven courtesans bore the sobriquet of Takao. The second Takao, however, who was active in the mid-1650s, was renowned for her skills in seducing rich and powerful patrons. Her ultimate conquest, the daimyo of Sendai, Date Tsunamune (1640-1711), purchased her freedom from brothel life, and they remained together until her death.