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Suzuki Harunobu. Courtesan in Night Attire Standing on a Verandah, ca. 1767. Color woodblock print on paper, Sheet: 10 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. (27.3 x 21.0 cm)
Image: 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 in. (26.7 x 21.0 cm). Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 45.158.1. No known copyright restrictions.
A young woman’s slumping posture indicates that she is dejected. On the paper screen behind her are the faint shadows of musicians, indicating that she has left a party to be alone. Knowing Harunobu’s tendency to hide literary references in his designs, scholars have suggested that this image refers to a well-known Japanese story about a beloved mirror, a female outcaste, and a cursed bell, which are represented by the stone basin full of reflective water, the lonely beauty, and the dipper (which is shaped like a mallet used to strike a bell). The story tells of the woe that comes to people who are greedy or overly attached to worldly things.