The Courtesan Takigawa of the Ogiya, from the series "Beauties of the Five Festivals (Bijin gosekku)"

Ichirakutei Eisui's portrait of the courtesan Takigawa of the Ogiya, an oban color woodblock print in the Art Institute of Chicago, belongs to his series Beauties of the Five Festivals (Bijin gosekku), issued around 1795 to 1800. Takigawa was a high-ranking oiran of the Ogiya, one of the great houses of the Yoshiwara, and her name recurs across the bijin-ga of the period in portraits by Utamaro and other contemporaries of Eisui. Here the figure is depicted in the elegant idiom of the Chobunsai Eishi school: a tall oval face, narrow features inclined slightly downward, and a tightly handled contour that wraps the body without exaggerating its volume. The cartouche names the courtesan, her house, and the series, situating the sheet within the late-Kansei vogue for portraits of named Yoshiwara women framed by literary or calendrical themes. The Art Institute's impression preserves the carefully balanced color harmonies and sparing use of metallic pigment that distinguish Eisui's best sheets, and its presence alongside the print of Hanahito of the same series allows direct comparison of the two designs.