Chōkōsai Eishō (鳥高斎栄昌) (artist )
A courtesan with her kamuro possibly from the Matsubaya
ca 1790
4.75 in x 25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Eishō ga (栄昌画)
Publisher: Yamaguchiya Chūsuke
(Marks 590 seal 05-001)
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna On the courtesan's outer robe is a single roundel decoration filled with a pine needle motif. Right next to that, to our left, is a comb in the hair of the kamuro. It too carries that same motif. That may suggest that this woman and her assistant come from the Matsubaya, a high-end house of prostitution. Matsu is the word for 'pine tree'. Eishō and others are known to have portrayed women from that establishment.
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Illustrated in black and white in The Japanese Pillar Print: Hashira-e by Jacob Pins, Robert G. Sawers Publishing, 1982, plate 894, page 316.
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There is another copy of the center panel in the Worcester Art Museum.
pillar print (hashira-e - 柱絵) (genre)
Yamaguchiya Chūsuke (山口屋忠助) (publisher)
beautiful woman picture (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)