Courtesan Akashi of the Tamaya, kamuro Uraji and Shimano, from the series Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara (Seirō nana Komachi)
- Series:
- Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara
- Date:
- c. 1796
- Medium:
- Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Harvard Art Museums
Kitagawa Utamaro's Courtesan Akashi of the Tamaya, kamuro Uraji and Shimano, from the 1791 series Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara (Seirō nana Komachi), exemplifies the mitate-e tradition through which Edo [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) regularly linked contemporary courtesans to figures of classical legend. The seven Komachi were episodes from the life and afterlife of the ninth-century poet Ono no Komachi, by Utamaro's time a stock subject of theater and poetry, and the series translates each episode into a Yoshiwara setting populated by a named oiran and her attendant kamuro. Here Akashi of the Tamaya occupies the place of Komachi, while the two child attendants Uraji and Shimano stand for the secondary figures of the original narrative. Utamaro's command of pattern, posture, and the calibrated relationships between adult and child figures gives the design a quiet theatricality without disturbing the realism of Tamaya costume. The publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo issued the series in collaboration with Utamaro at the moment when his half-length portraits were transforming the wider field of [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e). The Harvard Art Museums holds the impression among its Japanese print collection. As both elegant compliment to a star of the Yoshiwara and learned allusion to classical poetry, the print captures the layered cultural play that defined late-eighteenth-century Edo bijin-ga.
![A Low Class Prostitute (Gun [teppo]), from the series “Five Shades of Ink in the Northern Quarter" ("Hokkoku goshiki-zumi") by Kitagawa Utamaro](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/ed82be98-8a83-4163-ccc4-e2f7210cce55/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
c. 1794/95
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1793
color woodblock print
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
![Hour of the Rat [12pm] (Ne no koku), from the series "The Twelve Hours in Yoshiwara (Seiro juni toki tsuzuki)" by Kitagawa Utamaro](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/df3242c0-3535-b828-b556-56ca889435cd/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
c. 1794
Color woodblock print; oban
![Hour of the Ox [2am] (Ushi no koku), from the series "The Twelve Hours in Yoshiwara (Seiro juni toki tsuzuki)" by Kitagawa Utamaro](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/383194e4-1eb2-0166-ee78-500d2ef5d875/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
c. 1794
Color woodblock print; oban
![Hour of the Hare [6am] (U no koku), from the series “The Twelve Hours in Yoshiwara” ("Seiro juni toki tsuzuki") by Kitagawa Utamaro](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/a9a8d8c0-e642-2335-2538-b61cdd915c94/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
c. 1794
Color woodblock print; oban
Courtesan Akashi of the Tamaya, kamuro Uraji and Shimano, from the series Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara (Seirō nana Komachi) was created by Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿) in c. 1796.
Yes — Courtesan Akashi of the Tamaya, kamuro Uraji and Shimano, from the series Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara (Seirō nana Komachi) is part of the Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara series by Kitagawa Utamaro.
Courtesan Akashi of the Tamaya, kamuro Uraji and Shimano, from the series Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara (Seirō nana Komachi) depicts yoshiwara.