Sodeura of the Tamaya, with Her Kamuro Kozue and Mumeno

Sodeura of the Tamaya, with Her Kamuro Kozue and Mumeno, is a color woodblock print by Kitagawa Hidemaro of the early nineteenth century, held by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (object number 207531). The print is a named-courtesan portrait of Sodeura, a high-ranking courtesan of the Tamaya house of the Yoshiwara, accompanied by her two child attendants (kamuro), Kozue and Mumeno. The Tamaya, along with the Ōgiya and Matsubaya, was one of the most prestigious yūjo establishments of the late-Edo pleasure quarter, and its named beauties were portrayed repeatedly by Utamaro, Eishi, and their pupils. Hidemaro's contribution to the iconography of Sodeura places him within this established tradition of high-end Yoshiwara portraiture. The compositional format — the central courtesan in elaborate uchikake flanked by two matching kamuro — is the standard late-Utamaro template, and the figural style follows the Kitagawa school's elongated-neck, narrow-face vocabulary. The print is one of a group of Hidemaro ōkubi-e of named Tamaya, Hyōgoya, and Ōgiya courtesans preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's late-Kitagawa school holdings.