Appearing Again: Naniwaya Okita, from the series “Renowned Beauties Likened to the Six Immortal Poets" ("Komei bijin rokkasen")

Appearing Again: Naniwaya Okita is a celebrated sheet from Kitagawa Utamaro's c. 1790 series Renowned Beauties Likened to the Six Immortal Poets (Komei bijin rokkasen), in which the artist matched six famous Edo women with the classical poets of the Rokkasen canon. Okita, the teenage daughter of the Naniwaya teahouse near Asakusa's Zuishin Gate, became one of the most photographed faces of late eighteenth-century Edo before photography existed, drawing crowds of young men who came simply to glimpse her serving tea. Utamaro represents her as an okubi-e bust portrait, her oval face slightly turned, eyebrows arched, mouth small and closed. The series is foundational to mature Edo bijin-ga: Utamaro and his publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo replaced full-length figures with monumental close-ups against luxurious mica grounds, treating an actual living woman with the dignity once reserved for legendary court poets. The Art Institute of Chicago impression preserves the elegant cartouche above and the simple kimono pattern that lets the face dominate. Within ukiyo-e, this print marks the moment when a young teahouse worker became, through Utamaro's design, an enduring icon of urban beauty.