Parading Courtesan

Painting and Inscription by Momokawa Shikō Japanese

Not on view

A magnificently attired woman adjusts one of the hairpins keeping in place her double-bunned hyōgo-mage hairstyle. The array of hair ornaments and the elaborate layers of her richly colored robes declare her to be an oiran, or a highly ranked courtesan of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters. The inscription by the artist quotes the Rinzai Zen monk Takuan Sōhō (1573–1645), weaving in famous Zen sayings:

Buddha tried to sell religious law; Our founding patriarch [Bodhidharma] tried to sell the Buddha; We, monks of the Final Age of the Law, try to sell our founding patriarch. And you sell your five-foot-tall body to allay the passions of mankind.

“Form is none other than emptiness;
emptiness is none other than form”
“Willows are green, and flowers crimson”

Parading Courtesan, Painting and Inscription by Momokawa Shikō (Japanese, active late 18th– early 19th century), Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan

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Parading Courtesan, Painting and Inscription by Momokawa Shikō (Japanese, active late 18th– early 19th century), Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan
Parading Courtesan, Painting and Inscription by Momokawa Shikō (Japanese, active late 18th– early 19th century), Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan

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