Keisai Eisen: Three Courtesans (1820 - 1830)

(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

A set of prints by the Japanse artist Keisai Eisen (1790–1848). Eisen was a Ukiyo-e (a type of Japanese art) artist who specialized in bijin-ga art ('beautiful person picture'). Usually these prints depicted courtesans from the pleasure districts of Edo or kabuki actors (also men dressed up as women who specialized in playing female kabuki roles) but also tea shop waitresses, the daughters and wives of tradesmen, etc. Prints from 1820-1830.