Cleveland Museum of Art

Kureha of Gakuiseya, from Selection of Beauties from the Pleasure Quarters

Suzuki HarunobuLinkedCulture matchlcp-b641e8b682cb

Date

1770

Medium

color woodblock print

Culture

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Object ID

102617

This print of a courtesan named Kureha reading a letter comes from a five-volume series of picture books that Suzuki Harunobu designed with images of 166 beautiful courtesans of the Edo (now Tokyo) pleasure district. In intact copies of the fourth volume, of which this is a trimmed page, Kureha is the fifth and final courtesan representing her house, Gakuiseya; the house crest is a roundel formed of pine branches, seen on her outer robe’s sleeve. All poems in the volume are autumnal, and Kureha’s describes white dew on colorful maple leaves.

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