A Courtesan with Her Child Attendant

An o-oban sumizuri-e of around 1715 depicts a Yoshiwara courtesan standing alongside her child attendant (kamuro), one of the young girls who served as apprentices in the pleasure quarter and accompanied senior courtesans in public. The composition belongs to a long tradition of bijin-ga that paired adult courtesans with their juvenile attendants, partly to display the sumptuous textiles of both figures and partly to evoke the elaborate social hierarchies of the licensed quarter. Without color, the entire pictorial effect depends on Kiyonobu's command of line: the heavy folds of the courtesan's kimono cascade in long swelling curves, while the smaller figure of the kamuro is drawn with shorter, tighter contours that emphasize her youth.