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Kureha of Gakuiseya, from Selection of Beauties from the Pleasure Quarters
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineKureha of Gakuiseya, from Selection of Beauties from the Pleasure Quarters (絵本青楼美人合内 額いせ屋のくれは), 1770. Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1724–1770). Color woodblock print; sheet: 21.6 x 14.6 cm (8 1/2 x 5 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift from J. H. Wade, 1921.1282
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