Courtesan names and houses

This page is to help identify courtesan names on Japanese woodprints, as these names are often written in a cursive script that is difficult to read for non-specialists like me, often mixing kanji and hiragana characters.

The source is the digital archives of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. I inventoried all the prints of courtesans in that archive and took a screenshot of the part of the print with the names of the courtesan and of her house. Some images have names or several courtesans, sometimes of different houses. I did not take screenshots of names in triptychs, because their resolution is insufficient.

The names of 517 courtesans (often with several possible spellings) and 122 houses are listed in alphabetical order in the first two links below. Clicking on a name opens a page with images, at the location of that name.

The two pages with images, which can be accessed directly (last two links), have the name of the house, that of the courtesan, and a link to the image of the whole print in the archives of the MFA. The text on the images is read from top to bottom and then from right to left, first the house, then the courtesan(s). In the captions, the same text is written from left to right (in transliteration as well as in Japanese), which might be confusing at first. When there is text on the image between the names, it is occasionally written in brackets in the caption. When in smaller characters, it is often the names of the Kamuros, bracketing that of the courtesan. The names of the houses are usually followed by -ro (楼) or -ya (屋 or や), and sometimes also by uchi (内 or うち). There were several classes of courtesans : the higher ones, Oiran (or elder sister) and Dayu (太夫) are occasionally given in the captions, before or after the courtesan name.

A word of caution about the captions : the ones given by the MFA do not always agree with what one sees on the image. Sometimes it is just a different spelling of the name, kanji instead of hiragana or vice versa. The syllable "shi" is often written し instead of 志, I did not correct that. I corrected obvious mistakes, but left doubtful cases, occasionally marking them with ??. Miyagiku is not spelled as indicated, and examples of ambiguous readings are Michihama and Michiharu, which are probably both Michihana. When there is only one question mark, it is in the caption of the MFA. Another problem is the transliteration of the names. For example, 弥玉 is Ya-Tama in one caption, and Yadama in another. I adopted the latter. The way a name is pronounced is sometimes ambiguous, Komurasaki or Koimurasaki. Harugano and Kasugano are written the same way, same for Motozue and Hozue, Naganobori and Nagato, Nanado and Nanahito.

List of courtesan names
List of courtesan houses
Images ordered by courtesan names
Images ordered by house names

Some images only have courtesan names, others only have house names. They were removed from the respective pages of ordered images.

These lists are of course far from complete. There were about 8600 courtesans in 156 houses in the Yoshiwara district alone in the 19th century. The houses were ranked in first, second and third class. Surprisingly, the most common ones on prints are not necessarily first or even second class. Woodprints also picture waitresses in teahouses, for example Okita (おきた) at the Naniwaya (難波屋) or Osen (お仙 or おせん) at the Kagiya (鍵屋), who might also serve as go-betweens for clients and courtesans.