Flowers of Beauty in the Floating World (Ukiyo bijin hana ni yosu): Motoura and Yaezakura of the Minami Yamazakiya

Flowers of Beauty in the Floating World (Ukiyo bijin hana ni yosu): Motoura and Yaezakura of the Minami Yamazakiya is a Suzuki Harunobu print documented through ukiyo-e.org from the Art Institute of Chicago. The series Ukiyo bijin hana ni yosu, "floating-world beauties likened to flowers," is a classic example of the keisei kurabe genre, the illustrated rosters of named Yoshiwara courtesans that became a staple of Edo bijin-ga in the mid-eighteenth century. Each sheet pairs the portraits of specific high-ranking women from a known brothel with a flower whose qualities echo their reputation. This print presents Motoura and Yaezakura of the Minami Yamazakiya, two courtesans whose own names already carry floral resonances, and in which the layered, eight-petaled cherry blossom (yaezakura) supplies a visual rhyme for the women's elaborate, multi-layered robes. The series is also a vehicle for the polychrome printing that Harunobu and his collaborators were perfecting in the 1760s. Pale pinks, mineral greens, and soft grays are registered against one another with precision, and the surface patterning of the robes is described in the careful detail that nishiki-e made possible. By integrating personal nicknames, the names of specific Yoshiwara establishments, and the conventions of floral analogy, the design turns the working women of the licensed quarter into objects of urban connoisseurship. The print is accessible through ukiyo-e.org at ukiyo-e.org/image/aic/1303_1175373 as Flowers of Beauty in the Floating World: Motoura and Yaezakura of the Minami Yamazakiya by Suzuki Harunobu.