The Courtesan Michinoku of the Tsutaya House with her Kamuro Midare and Shinobu, from the series "Kikkaku Hokufu"

This Katsukawa Shunsho bijinga, dated to around 1769, depicts the Yoshiwara courtesan Michinoku of the Tsutaya house, accompanied by her two young attendants, or kamuro, named Midare and Shinobu, in a sheet from the series Kikkaku Hokufu. The kamuro were apprentice girls who attended high-ranking courtesans and were typically depicted at their mistress's sides in promenade through the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, their presence signaling the courtesan's rank within the elaborate hierarchy of the licensed quarter. Shunsho captures Michinoku in the lavish patterned robes and towering hair ornaments characteristic of an oiran, the small attendants providing both compositional balance and a visual register of her status. Although best known for his yakusha-e and the founding of the Katsukawa school, Shunsho contributed to the bijinga genre throughout his career, and his depictions of Yoshiwara courtesans formed part of the Edo ukiyo-e market for images of the licensed quarter's celebrated women. Series like Kikkaku Hokufu offered viewers a tour through the leading courtesans of the day, functioning simultaneously as celebrity portraiture, fashion plate, and aspirational evocation of the Yoshiwara's commercialized glamour. This impression is held by the Art Institute of Chicago. The print enriches our understanding of Shunsho's bijinga production and contributes to documentation of the named courtesans whose careers are otherwise preserved primarily through ukiyo-e imagery and contemporary Yoshiwara guidebooks.