Kamuro with Shamisen and Kamuro(?) with Fan, from the series Fūryū kodomo asobi

From the series Fashionable Children's Games (Furyu kodomo asobi), Kitagawa Utamaro's ukiyo-e print of a kamuro with a shamisen and a kamuro with a fan turns the young attendants of the Yoshiwara into engaging subjects of Edo bijin-ga in their own right. Kamuro were girls in training under high-ranking courtesans, performing errands, learning music, and absorbing the etiquette of the licensed quarter; Utamaro's choice to single them out in a series of fashionable games acknowledges the role they played in the visual culture of the pleasure district. One child holds the shamisen, the three-stringed instrument central to the entertainments of the brothel, while the other carries a fan, a prop that signals dance and conversation alike. Utamaro draws the pair with the same calligraphic outline and elongated proportions he applied to grown beauties, dignifying the children without erasing their youth. The pale paper ground throws their patterned kimono into relief, while small variations in hairstyle and gesture distinguish the two figures despite their parallel pose. The Harvard Art Museums preserves this impression (object 209972), where it joins related prints that show how Utamaro extended ukiyo-e's bijin-ga conventions to encompass the wider household of the Yoshiwara, training pupils included.