Courtesan and Two Attendants Playing with a Dog

Suzuki Harunobu sets a courtesan and her two kamuro, or young attendants, in a moment of play with a small dog in this 1761 chuban print, a lively counterweight to the more contemplative scenes in his early-1760s output. The trio occupies a parlor or veranda in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, the dog leaping or tugging at a cord while the kamuro reach toward it in delighted concentration. The courtesan presides over the scene with the composed posture of her rank, her elaborately patterned kimono and decorated obi distinguishing her from the simpler robes of her young attendants. Harunobu uses the energy of the dog to organize the design, with each figure's pose oriented toward the animal at the compositional center. The interior is sparely indicated, allowing the patterned garments and the bright moment of play to dominate the sheet. As with much of Harunobu's chuban bijin-ga, the print rejects vulgar caricature in favor of a kind of refined intimacy, presenting the social hierarchies of the quarter without sentimentality and finding in their interactions material for graceful Edo ukiyo-e design. The work belongs to the years immediately preceding the 1765 breakthrough of full-color nishiki-e, and it shows the careful color planning that brocade printing would soon enable on a wider scale. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago, this Suzuki Harunobu impression invites attention to the way that play and rank can coexist within a single, carefully composed sheet.