Courtesan returning to her lover, by Isoda Koryusai

An image of Courtesan returning to her lover. Isoda Koryûsai (active 1766-1788). Colour print from woodblocks, height 686mm, width 117mm. Hashira-e format. Circa 1771. The provocative glimpse of the woman's body is typical of prints known as abuna-e (risqué picture). The expression was used as early as 1687 in a 'floating world' story book (ukiyo-zôshi) entitled Amorous educational pictures (Kôshoku kimmô zui); it defined the quality of tantalising pictures that show only a glimpse rather than revealing all.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Courtesan returning to her lover. Isoda Koryûsai (active 1766-1788). Colour print from woodblocks, height 686mm, width 117mm. Hashira-e format. Circa 1771. The provocative glimpse of the woman's body is typical of prints known as abuna-e (risqué picture). The expression was used as early as 1687 in a 'floating world' story book (ukiyo-zôshi) entitled Amorous educational pictures (Kôshoku kimmô zui); it defined the quality of tantalising pictures that show only a glimpse rather than revealing all.

Image data

Accession Number: P.3639-R
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal length: 50
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Michael Jones
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 189 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 244.32kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 22/1
Captured: 2013:08:27 10:00:55

Key words

18th Century abuna-e amorous clothes clothing colour printing costume courtesan Edo Period fashion female Fitz_PDP geigi geiko geisha hair hairstyle hashira-e interior Isoda Koryusai Japan Japanese kanzashi hairpin lovers print provocative risque robes screen ukiyo-e woman woodblock woodcut

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Courtesan returning to her lover, by Isoda Koryusai "
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-218479 Accessed: 2024-04-18 10:13:22

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-218479
            |title=Courtesan returning to her lover, by Isoda Koryusai 
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-18 10:13:22|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/images/media-218479

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp82/p_3639_r_1_201308_mfj22_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Courtesan returning to her lover"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Courtesan returning to her lover, by Isoda Koryusai </figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>