Parading Courtesan with Attendants

This kakemono or hanging scroll shows an elaborately robed courtesan walking on high, lacquered clogs accompanied by two young attendants, each carrying a battledore. The courtesan sports an elaborate carved lacquer hair ornament and wears a large sash tied at the front and decorated with a bird and flower design. The two attendants have tortoiseshell hair ornaments, their robes being decorated with the same cherry blossom crest that appears on the courtesan's robe. They wear large sashes tied at the back. The painting is not signed. It has been variously attributed to Engetsudo (Ishikawa Sekishin) and Furuyama Moromasa, a late follower of Hishikawa Moronobu. Specific attribution aside, it is fine example of a bijin-ga or 'beautiful woman painting' of the sort that was popular in mid- to late-18th-century Edo, as Tokyo was then known.