The courtesans Segawa and Matsundo (or Matsubito) of the Matsuba Establishment, from the series A Mirror with Examples of Calligraphy by Beautiful New Courtesans in the Yoshiwara

The Courtesans Segawa and Matsundo of the Matsuba Establishment is a sheet from Kitao Masanobu's celebrated luxury book Yoshiwara keisei shin bijin awase jihitsu kagami, sometimes translated as A Mirror with Examples of Calligraphy by Beautiful New Courtesans in the Yoshiwara. Published in 1783 in two volumes by Tsutaya Juzaburo, the work is considered one of the highest achievements of mid-Edo ukiyo-e and the masterpiece of Masanobu's printmaking career.

Each double-page spread presents a pair of top-ranking oiran from one of the great Yoshiwara establishments, attended by their kamuro and shinzo, alongside calligraphy purportedly written by the women themselves. Segawa was the in-house name of the leading oiran at the Matsubaya, transmitted from generation to generation; here she is paired with Matsundo (also read Matsubito), her senior colleague at the same house. The Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison holds this sheet, recorded via ukiyo-e.org.

Designed in oversized double-page format, the print exemplifies the Kitao school style at its most lavish: tall, elegant women in patterned uchikake, attendant girls drawn with affectionate precision, and a composition that lets the kimono designs and obi knots act as compositional rhythm. The integration of calligraphy is significant — it positions the courtesans as cultivated women of letters and connects the book to the kyoka and waka circles in which Masanobu himself moved. As an Edo ukiyo-e document, the sheet captures both the visual splendor and the literary aspirations of the late-eighteenth-century Yoshiwara at the height of Tenmei culture.