The Courtesans Kasugano and Utahama of Tamaya, from Courtesans of the Pleasure Quarters in Double Mirrors (c. 1800): Art, History and Details

The Courtesans Kasugano and Utahama of Tamaya, from Courtesans of the Pleasure Quarters in Double Mirrors (c. 1800) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806).

The work and its context

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

Kitagawa Utamaro was well known for his close-up portraits that belonged to a genre, or category, of images called bijinga (pictures of beautiful people). This print is from a series that invites comparisons of the attractiveness of different figures. It features two sex workers from an establishment in the Yoshiwara district of Edo (now Tokyo).

Object facts

• Title: The Courtesans Kasugano and Utahama of Tamaya, from Courtesans of the Pleasure Quarters in Double Mirrors
• Date: c. 1800
• Creator attribution: Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: 39.1 x 26.1 cm (15 3/8 x 10 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1930.217

Collection credit

Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore

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.