Mt. Fuji from Izu Province; The Courtesan Kisegawa of the Owariya Brothel

1829-1832

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Keisai Eisen and Tsutaya Kichizo

Mt. Fuji from Izu Province; The Courtesan Kisegawa of the Owariya Brothel

Artist: Keisai Eisen
Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizo

Mt. Fuji from Izu Province; The Courtesan Kisegawa of the Owariya Brothel

1829-1832

Physical Qualities Color woodcut, Sheet: 386 x 261 mm. (15 3/16 x 10 1/4 in.)

Credit Line Gift from the Estate of Julius Levy

Object Number 1933.67.1

Kisegawa, a courtesan identified by name in this print, wears a robe decorated with a barnacle, various mollusks, and an undersea palace emanating from a clam shell, offering clients an eroticized fantasy world. The lanterns behind her display the emblem of her brothel; its owner likely paid for the print’s production to promote his business. Kisegawa’s personal crest of paired birds decorates her coat, sash, and hairpins. Though paid, sex workers were often in debt from fees charged for clothes and accessories like hairpins.

Frances Klapthor, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "90 Years of Asian Accessions: 1920-1940," (Lockwood de Forest, Julius Levy, Francis Burns Harvey, Mary Frick Jacobs, William H. Whitridge), July 2004-February 2005.

Katherine Rothkopf and Frances Klapthor, The Art of Pattern: Henri Matisse and Japanese Woodcut Artists, The Baltimore Museum of Art, June 2, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025

"The Art of Pattern: Henri Matisse and Japanese Woodcut Artists," BMA Today, Illue 173, Winter/Spring 2024, p. 7.

Inscribed: FACE: signature, Keisai Eisen ga; publisher seal; Kiwame seal