Utamaro - Hokkoku Goshiki-zumi

Kitagawa Utamaro Collection

Hokkoku Goshiki-zumi 

(北国五色墨, "Five Shades of Ink in the Northern Quarter")

FORMAT: A series of five ukiyo-e prints designed by the Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro, ōban size which is approx. 39x25cm and reproduced on 170gsm white A3 paper with approx 2cm border.

PUBLISHED: ca.1794–95.

NOTES: The prints depict and contrast women who work in or near the exclusive pleasure district of Yoshiwara in the administrative capital of Edo (modern Tokyo). They range from the highest ranks—highly-trained and expensive geisha and oiran—to the lowest prostitutes outside the walls of Yoshiwara. Each is printed on a yellowish background and bears a different-coloured inkstick-shaped cartouche in the corner displaying the series name. The title alludes to and puns on the name of a haikai poetry anthology that appeared in 1731.

In order of rank (low to high);

Kashi - worked outside the walls of the pleasure district Yashiwara

 

 Teppō (てっぽう, "rifle") refers to another type of prostitute who worked outside the walls of Yoshiwara and charged exceptionally low rates.

 Kiri no Musume (切の娘, "short-term prostitute") was a sort of low-ranked prostitute who worked within the walls of the pleasure districts

 A Geigi (芸妓, another word for "geisha") was the highest-ranked worker in the pleasure districts.

Oiran (おいらん, "high-ranking courtesan") represents the highest-ranking type of prostitute in the pleasure districts.