Masako from Mino Province

Executed in the rare, long format (nagaban), this print depicts a prostitute and her attendant playing with a child who could be hers from a previous love affair. The poem reads: I rub evening primrose flower on the cloth of the man I love, hoping the scent of the flower will remind him of me The name of the prostitute is inscribed on the print as “Masako from Mino Province, ” which we can use to identify Yabe Masako, who died at age twenty-nine in 1773.