Beauty(Courtesan)

This portrait of a courtesan of the Yoshiwara district was painted to document the customs and manners of the times. It has been pointed out that, like Yuichi’s many other portraits, it may have been based on a photograph.

According to an article in the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun newspaper of April 28, 1872, a certain individual, lamenting the gradual disappearance of the hyogosage hairstyle from the pleasure quarters of Yoshiwara, requested Takahashi Yuichi to record it for posterity. All the courtesans of the time, however, wished rather to be portrayed in polychrome ukiyo-e prints, and only Koine of the establishment called Yoshiiwara Inamotoro agreed to pose for Yuichi. There are three different theories regarding the date of production of this work. The theory that identifies the work shown here as the said portrait of Koine proposes that it was painted in 1872. The work is flat and decorative in technique and thus different in quality from a Western European oil painting. Considering Yuichi’s relationship with Fontanesi as well, a date of 1872, prior to Fontanesi’s arrival in Japan, would therefore be justified. Recent technical analysis has also supported this date. The second theory, which suggests a date of 1875-76, asserts that this work cannot be identified with the story given in the newspaper article and that a date of 1872 is too early from the viewpoint of technique. The third theory, which gives the date of production as 1877-78, attributes to Fontanesi’s influence the realism that extends even to the inner being of the model. In any case, this work shows a unique realism that has emerged as a result of Yuichi’s pursuit of the person and the materiality of her costume on an equal level. Yuichi’s student Sakaki Teitoku later recalled that Koine, seeing the finished portrait, wept and fumed that she did not look that way, but it is nevertheless a masterpiece of portraiture done during the dawn of Western style realism in Japan. (Writer : Misato Shimazu Source : Selected Masterpieces from The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music: Grand Opening Exhibition, The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, 1999)