• The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)
The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series <i>ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans</i> (<i>Bijin keisei iroha tanka</i>: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)

Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

The Syllable Wo (ヲ): Nanasato (七里) of the Ebisugataya from the series ABC Poems for Beautiful Courtesans (Bijin keisei iroha tanka: 美人傾城いろはたん歌)

Print


ca 1822
color woodblock
Signed: Okonomi ni tsuki (out of my own taste) Kunisada ga
御好ニ付国貞画
Publisher: Yamaguchiya Tōbei
(Marks 591 - seal 15-005)
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
Drexel University, Philadelphia
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - The Syllable Ho - Yosooi
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - The Syllable I - Shiratama
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - The Syllable Ni - Somei
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - The Syllable Ro - Tsukasa
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - The Syllable Ka
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - The Syllable Ri
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - The Syllable Ru
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Eisen print of the courtesan Nanzato
Beaux-arts de Paris Each courtesan in this series based on the Japanese alphabet is accompanied by a poem which starts with the appropriate 'letter'. This one is number 12. Christie's translated the title as 'Alphabet Poems for Beautiful Courtesans'.

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We have been able to locate several other prints from this series. Four are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and one is in the Mead Art Museum at Amherst. There is also one in the Shizuoka Prefectural Library and another in the Waseda University collection.

In the upper right corner is an ikō (衣桁), a clothes rack, meant not only to keep the courtesans elaborate gown fresh, but also to display it for its ostentatious nature.

Nansato can also be read as Nanzato as can be seen from one example at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. (See the link to the Eisen above.) However, there are five other examples at the MFA where the name is translated as Nanasato.
beautiful women (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
Yamaguchiya Tōbei (山口屋藤兵衛) (publisher)