Sayoginu of the Yotsumeya, from the series "Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana hatsu moyo)"

Isoda Koryusai's portrait of Sayoginu of the Yotsumeya, dated 1772 by the Art Institute of Chicago (artwork 21357), belongs to Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana hatsu moyo), the long-running series that defined Edo bijin-ga in the 1770s. The Yotsumeya was one of the named houses of the Yoshiwara whose leading courtesans Koryusai documented sheet by sheet across the decade, and Sayoginu's name appears in the title cartouche together with her house identification, in keeping with the documentary protocol of Hinagata Wakana. The figure stands alone in full length against an unmodeled ground, the format that Koryusai refined into the standard template of the series. The composition gives the entire picture surface over to the play of textile patterns across her layered robes, the broad outer over-kimono, and the obi tied prominently in front. The face is rendered with the small mouth and elongated oval characteristic of the period, beneath a tall arrangement of pins and combs that marked her rank. Hinagata Wakana functioned simultaneously as a portrait gallery of named oiran and as a working catalogue of seasonal design, and the Art Institute's record for this impression preserves the named house, the named woman, the year, and the series title, anchoring it precisely within Koryusai's systematic survey of the named hierarchy of the licensed quarter.