Takigawa and Katarai of the Ogiya, from the series "Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana hatsu moyo)"

This double-figure sheet from Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana hatsu moyo) presents Takigawa and Katarai, two courtesans of the Ogiya, in an impression dated 1771 by the Art Institute of Chicago (artwork 21384). The Ogiya was among the most prominent houses of the Yoshiwara, and Takigawa in particular was a name that recurred over generations as one of its leading women. Koryusai gives the two figures equal compositional weight, balancing the standing poses so that their robes and obis dialogue across the picture surface and the entire sheet functions as a comparative display of textile design. The format embodies the documentary aims of Hinagata Wakana, which used named portraits of specific courtesans from named houses to chart the season's leading patterns for an Edo audience that read the prints both as luxury images and as a form of fashion intelligence. Koryusai's drawing places the heads close together so that the elaborate arrangements of hairpins read against one another, the small mouths and elongated faces tilted just enough to suggest conversation. The Art Institute's catalogue preserves the series title, the names of the two women, and their affiliation with the Ogiya, anchoring the print within Koryusai's systematic, decade-long survey of the named hierarchy of the licensed quarter.