Courtesan in Night Attire Standing on a Verandah

ca. 1767

A young woman’s slumping posture indicates that she is dejected. On the paper screen behind her are the faint shadows of musicians, indicating that she has left a party to be alone. Knowing Harunobu’s tendency to hide literary references in his designs, scholars have suggested that this image refers to a well-known Japanese story about a beloved mirror, a female outcaste, and a cursed bell, which are represented by the stone basin full of reflective water, the lonely beauty, and the dipper (which is shaped like a mallet used to strike a bell). The story tells of the woe that comes to people who are greedy or overly attached to worldly things.