Courtesan Reading a Letter (early 1800s): Art, History and Details

Courtesan Reading a Letter (early 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Teisai Hokuba (Japanese, 1771–1844); Ōta Nanpo (Japanese, 1749–1823).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Ukiyo-e artists and collaborating poets introduced imagery from classical literature to add layers of meaning to their work. Here, a courtesan pores over a letter from an admirer, and the poem next to her reads as follows: "Having been asked to stay over, / I stayed on—and for a good reason. / It’s way past midnight / and the lady is that (legendary implorer) Amagoi Komachi." Midnight was closing time in Yoshiwara, the licensed brothel district of Edo (now Tokyo). Amagoi, or “Praying for Rain,” Komachi refers to ninth-century poet Ono no Komachi—known for her compelling verse and great beauty—and one of her famous compositions.

Object facts

• Title: Courtesan Reading a Letter
• Date: early 1800s
• Creator attribution: Teisai Hokuba (Japanese, 1771–1844); Ōta Nanpo (Japanese, 1749–1823)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: two-panel folding screen; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 156.8 x 165.4 cm (61 3/4 x 65 1/8 in.); Overall: 175.2 x 183.5 cm (69 x 72 1/4 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.261

Collection credit

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292–295.
• Jenkins, Donald. “Paintings of the Floating World.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 244–278.
• Cunningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.