Courtesans of the Yoshiwara, from an Album of Their Verse and Calligraphy

Another opening from the same album of Yoshiwara courtesans. Here one woman reclines against a low table with an open writing box beside her, others gathered around in heavy patterned robes, a pair of small attendants at the right. Poems in the women's own hands are printed across the upper sheets. Kitao Masanobu, the artist name of Santō Kyōden, arranges half a dozen figures into one flowing composition that crosses the center fold without a break. The writing box is not a stray prop. The album's whole conceit is that these are literate, accomplished women, and their calligraphy is the point. Turned page by page, the book presents them a group at a time, a printed procession of the quarter's most famous residents.