Hell Courtesan
Kawanabe Kyōsai repeated this large-scale composition with variations a number of times. In this version, a famous 15th-century courtesan known for wearing a robe with images of the Buddhist hells stands before a folding screen. Legend has it that she was abducted by bandits, and wore the garment to symbolize her belief that her suffering in her current life was punishment for sins committed in a former life. Here, in a parody depiction of the garment, the courtesan stands in for Benzaiten, the goddess of everything that flows, while the remaining members of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune a...
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Dimensions
- image: height 1.442 m, width 0.676 m; overall: height 2.337 m, width 0.921 m
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
Art Genome Taxonomy
12 tags
Subject Matter
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Human Figure Both · 99%
A single large standing human figure dominates the composition.
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Mythology and Religion Metadata · 96%
The catalog describes the Buddhist hell imagery, Benzaiten, the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, and Enma, the King of Hell.
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Deities and Holy Figures Metadata · 91%
The catalog identifies the figure as standing in for Benzaiten and describes the appearance of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune and Enma within the work’s narrative imagery.
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Narrative Both · 93%
The catalog supplies a legend and a judgment narrative, while the robe visibly contains numerous small figures and scene-like motifs.
Visual Qualities
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Highly Ornamented Visual · 99%
The figure’s layered robes are densely decorated with floral, foliate, figurative, and ornamental motifs.
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Patterns Visual · 98%
Repeated floral, foliate, cloudlike, and figurative motifs cover the garments and the decorative border of the folding screen.
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Highly Detailed Visual · 96%
The garments and their embedded scenes are rendered with exceptionally fine, precise detail compared with the more atmospheric screen landscape.
Medium and Techniques
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Painting Metadata · 99%
The Cleveland Museum of Art classifies the work as a painting; the image visibly presents a painted composition.
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Hanging Scroll Metadata · 99%
The medium is explicitly identified as a hanging scroll; the image shows a tall vertical scroll format.
Time Periods
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19th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The work is dated 1871–89, within the nineteenth century.
Geographic Regions
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Japanese Art Metadata · 99%
The artist is identified as Japanese and the place of origin is Japan.
Materials
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Gold Metadata · 93%
The catalog lists gold as part of the medium.
Source & rights
Kawanabe Kyōsai (Japanese, 1831–1889). Hell Courtesan. Cleveland Museum of Art.