The Courtesans Kasugano and Utahama of Tamaya, from…

Kitagawa Utamaro • 1800

The Courtesans Kasugano and Utahama of Tamaya, from Courtesans of the…, 1800

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Kitagawa Utamaro was well known for his close-up portraits that belonged to a genre, or category, of images called <em>bijinga</em> (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).