The Courtesan Yosooi

Held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and dated to the late 1790s, this print of the courtesan Yosooi belongs to Eishō's celebrated cycle of named-oiran portraits. Yosooi was a top-ranked courtesan of one of the major Yoshiwara houses — the V&A's catalogue records the design as one of his identified large-head or bust-length single-figure prints of the period — and the artist gives her the full okubi-e treatment: tight crop, plain ground, elongated oval face, small mouth held in the characteristic noncommittal half-smile. The V&A's holdings of Eishō include several such named-courtesan portraits and provide one of the best European reference sets for his work; the impression is well preserved and the color work crisp.