Shioginu of the Tsutaya, from the series "Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana no hatsu moyo)"

Shioginu of the Tsutaya is a 1772 woodblock print by Isoda Koryusai from his celebrated series Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves, known in Japanese as Hinagata Wakana no Hatsu Moyo, the project that secured his place at the center of Edo bijin-ga. The series ran for more than a hundred prints between roughly 1776 and 1781, with earlier impressions like this one establishing the format: a single courtesan from a named Yoshiwara house, identified by name in the cartouche, posed full-length in the season's newest kimono, her costume the actual subject of the design. Shioginu, attached to the Tsutaya, is shown in the elongated standing format Koryusai used to display the full pattern of the robe, with the hem trailing and the sleeves spread to let the printed textile read across as much surface as possible. The composition functions as both a portrait and a fashion plate, allowing Edo townspeople to study the latest designs from the licensed quarter and giving the courtesan and her house the kind of public visibility on which the Yoshiwara economy depended. Koryusai's samurai-trained draftsmanship is on full display in the precise contouring of the figure, while the textile patterns themselves required the close collaboration of carver and printer that defined the best mid-1770s nishiki-e. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this impression.