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Suzuki Harunobu

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

1770
color woodblock print

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FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

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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