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The Confession of the Courtesan Takao (Takao zange no dan)

ca. 1798
Not on view
Takao was the name used by eleven generations of high-ranked courtesans of Yoshiwara. According to apocryphal accounts, Takao II was killed in 1659 by the daimyō Date Tsunamune while they were together on a pleasure boat (other accounts mention that she may have died of an illness). The Kabuki dance episode “Takao zange” (or “Takao sange”) reenacts the apparition of the remorseful ghost of Takao. This nagauta (lyrical song to accompany Kabuki) premiered in 1744 at the Ichimuraza, performed as part of the New Year drama Nanakusa wakayagi Soga, and was later revived in 1782 as the Tomimoto-based dance-drama Shinkyoku Takao Zange’in at the Nakamuraza, starring Segawa Kikunojō III in the role of the ghost of the Takao.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 栄松斎長喜画 「高尾さんけの段」
  • Title: The Confession of the Courtesan Takao (Takao zange no dan)
  • Artist: Eishōsai Chōki (Japanese, active late 18th–early 19th century)
  • Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
  • Date: ca. 1798
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
  • Dimensions: Vertical ōban; 14 1/2 × 9 13/16 in. (36.8 × 24.9 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Estate of Samuel Isham, 1914
  • Object Number: JP957
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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