Kaoru of the Shin-Kanaya, from the series "Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana no hatsu moyo)"

From Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana no hatsu moyo), Isoda Koryusai's portrait of Kaoru of the Shin-Kanaya is catalogued by the Art Institute of Chicago under artwork 3609, with a date of 1780 that places the impression late in the long run of Hinagata Wakana. The Shin-Kanaya, or New Kanaya, was a named house of the Yoshiwara, and the title cartouche preserves both Kaoru's name and her house identification, in keeping with the documentary protocol that the series imposed across its more than one hundred designs. By 1780, Koryusai had refined Hinagata Wakana into a mature and recognizable formula: a single full-length figure standing alone against an unmodeled ground, layered robes and a heavy outer over-kimono filling the picture surface with patterned textile, a broad obi tied prominently in front, and a tall arrangement of pins and combs rising above a small-mouthed, elongated face. The angle of the pose is calibrated to show the collars and the obi knot together, so that the print functions simultaneously as a portrait of a named woman from a named house and as a record of seasonal design. The Art Institute's record preserves the named woman, the named house, the year, and the series title, anchoring the impression within the late phase of Koryusai's defining contribution to Edo bijin-ga.