The Courtesans Kasugano and Utahama of Tamaya, from Courtesans of the Pleasure Quarters in Double Mirrors

Kitagawa Utamaro was well known for his close-up portraits that belonged to a genre, or category, of images called bijinga (pictures of beautiful people). This print is from a series that invites comparisons of the attractiveness of different figures. It features two sex workers from an establishment in the Yoshiwara district of Edo (now Tokyo).