A Courtesan and her Entourage Taking a Stroll

Catalog note / 解説

A customer looks on as a high-ranking courtesan takes a stroll with her entourage in this print by Okumura Masanobu. A male servant holds a parasol to shield the courtesan’s face, while she looks down at one of her two young female attendants. Masanobu was a print designer, painter and publisher of early <i>ukiyo-e</i>, or ‘pictures of the floating world’. His influence on the development of the genre cannot be overestimated. Among other achievements, he is credited with pioneering a craze for single-sheet portraits of famous beauties. The detailed rendering of dress and textiles in this print is characteristic of such pictures and reflects the fashion-conscious milieu in which Masanobu liv…