Right, Hair Tie from Edo Migi, Edo Motoyui

This elegantly dressed courtesan represents Edo within a trio of beauties from Japan’s leading cities. As one sheet of a larger triptych, she once stood beside rivals from Osaka and Kyoto. A large roundel on her shoulder identifies her home city, and the words Edo Motoyui appear in a title cartouche shaped as a woman’s sleeve dangling from a pine branch. The word motoyui, which may also be the courtesan’s name, refers to a paper hair tie, a special product of Edo at the time this print was made.
The beauty’s hairstyle, called nesagari hyōgo, is knotted at the neck and adorned with a single large comb. Feathers decorate her black uchikake outer robe—phoenix wings on her shoulders and long tail feathers fanned over her body. By applying ink mixed with glue to the outer robe, the printer gave it a lustrous black finish akin to satin — a characteristic of urushi-e prints. Gathered at one side, this opulent garment covers the front knot of a tortoise shell– patterned obi and a kosode adorned with red autumn leaves. Brass filings add sparkle to the obi, tail feathers, and pine. The other two sheets of the triptych are “Osaka Kōbai [red plum]” (Honolulu Academy of Arts, 16081) and “Kyoto Oshiroi [white makeup]” (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 11.19121). The design of three beauties is modeled on a prototype created by Okumura Masanobu, Toshinobu’s teacher.