Ofuji, the Shop Girl of the Motoyanagiya, with a Customer

Ofuji, the Shop Girl of the Motoyanagiya, with a Customer is a 1764 chuban-format design by Suzuki Harunobu in the Art Institute of Chicago. Like his prints of Kasamori Osen, this print sets at its center a real young woman whose looks had captured the imagination of Edo. Ofuji worked at the Motoyanagiya, a shop that sold yoji, the small toothpicks and willow-twig tools used in everyday hygiene, located near the Asakusa Kannon temple. Harunobu shows Ofuji in interaction with a customer, the small commercial transaction becoming the pretext for a subtle study of urban etiquette and youthful poise. The shop's wares and signage are alluded to with characteristic economy, allowing the two figures to dominate the page. Harunobu draws Ofuji with the same slender elegance he extended to his pleasure-quarter bijin, signaling that the world of celebrity bijin-ga in mid-1760s Edo ukiyo-e had expanded to include shop girls, teahouse waitresses, and other working women whose visibility along bustling streets made them famous well beyond their immediate trades. The print's chuban scale lends an intimate, almost portrait-like presence to a public encounter, and it forms part of a wider network of designs through which Harunobu helped invent the print celebrity, transforming neighborhood reputation into a marketable visual fame.