The Courtesans Utagawa and Nanasato from the Yotsumeya, from the album "Comparing New Beauties of the Yoshiwara - A Mirror of Their Own Writings (Keisei shin bijin awase jikihitsu kagami)"

The Courtesans Utagawa and Nanasato from the Yotsumeya, dated 1784, comes from Kitao Masanobu's most celebrated single work: Comparing New Beauties of the Yoshiwara, A Mirror of Their Own Writings (Keisei shin bijin awase jikihitsu kagami). The album, published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, is one of the supreme achievements of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) book design: a large-format luxurious album in which named high-ranking Yoshiwara courtesans are paired across double-page spreads with reproductions of their own calligraphy in the form of kyoka and waka poems. The double portrait of Utagawa and Nanasato from the Yotsumeya brothel is among the album's most famous compositions. Masanobu, the senior pupil of Kitao Shigemasa and the most prominent designer of the Kitao school, rendered each figure with extraordinary care: the layered kimono fall in long sweeping lines, the elaborate hair is built up with combs and pins befitting the highest Yoshiwara rank, and the women's individual features are drawn with the recognisability that distinguishes a true portrait from a generic [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga). The album functioned as both a celebration of Yoshiwara culture and a virtuoso demonstration of what [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) printing could achieve at the highest level. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression, where the print stands as a defining document of Edo ukiyo-e at its 1784 peak and of Kitao Masanobu's role in shaping it.