Daikoku, God of Health, Personified by a Courtesan of Shimabara

This bijin-ga depicts a courtesan from the Shimabara pleasure district of Kyoto costumed as Daikoku, one of Japan's Seven Lucky Gods. The subject blends two popular pictorial traditions: the celebrated beauties of the licensed quarters and the festive iconography of the Shichifukujin. Daikoku is conventionally associated with wealth and good fortune, typically shown with a large mallet and bales of rice; here those attributes are reinterpreted through the figure of an elaborately dressed woman. Jacoulet's characteristic use of rich, layered color achieved through multiple woodblock passes and delicate bokashi gradations gives the costume and figure a luminous depth. His edition practices, which included numbered impressions and seal-stamped certificates signed by the carver and printer, reflect the shin-hanga framework in which he worked, though his subject matter and sensibility remained distinctly personal.