"The Hell Courtesan (Yûkun Jigoku Dayû), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)"
by Ogata Gekko
- Series:
- Gekkô Zuihitsu
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
- Image courtesy of
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
by Ogata Gekko
From the Gekkō Zuihitsu series, this print depicts Jigoku Dayū (Hell Courtesan), a legendary high-ranking courtesan associated with the eccentric Zen monk Ikkyū Sōjun (1394–1481). According to tradition, Jigoku Dayū had a vision of the suffering of hell that shaped her understanding of impermanence, and her robes were said to be decorated with imagery of demons and tormented souls—making her garments themselves a doctrinal statement about the fleeting nature of beauty and pleasure. Gekko's composition almost certainly shows her standing or seated in elaborate court dress, her kimono decorated with hell imagery rendered in the tight, detailed line work he reserved for costume subjects. The juxtaposition of female beauty and Buddhist eschatology, both high-Meiji preoccupations, gave the subject particular resonance. Within the miscellany format of the Zuihitsu series, the print functions as a meditation on the intersection of the erotic and the mortal that had long animated [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) as a genre.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
"The Hell Courtesan (Yûkun Jigoku Dayû), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)" was created by Ogata Gekko (尾形月耕).
Yes — "The Hell Courtesan (Yûkun Jigoku Dayû), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)" is part of the Gekkô Zuihitsu series by Ogata Gekko.
"The Hell Courtesan (Yûkun Jigoku Dayû), from the series Gekkô Zuihitsu (Gekkô's Miscellany)" depicts bijin-ga.
