Standing Geisha

This Art Institute of Chicago hand-colored woodblock print, classified as an urushi-e in vertical oban diptych format and dated to around 1748, depicts a standing geisha in the elongated full-figure mode that Ishikawa Toyonobu made his own. The vertical oban diptych, two sheets printed and read together as a single composition, gave Toyonobu the height of nearly two standard oban placed end to end, allowing him to give the geisha the proportional grace of his hashira-e while supplying the lateral breathing room that the pillar format denied. The geisha, distinct from the courtesan in her professional identity as an entertainer rather than a sex worker, was an increasingly visible figure in the Edo demimonde of the 1740s and 1750s, and Toyonobu's portraits helped establish the visual conventions by which the geisha would be recognized in subsequent ukiyo-e. Urushi-e classification confirms the use of lustrous black lacquer-like accents and hand-applied beni pink and other pigments, supplying the warm color register that gave urushi-e its luxurious appearance. The standing pose, weight slightly on one leg, allowed Toyonobu to develop the long fall of her outer robe and the contrasting geometry of her obi sash. The Art Institute sheet is a touchstone of Toyonobu's geisha imagery in its mature urushi-e diptych form.