Hell Courtesan () is a legendary figure originating in

Edo Japan The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

ese folklore. The Hell Courtesan has been portrayed multiple times in

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

Legend

The Hell Courtesan is usually depicted in a dress with the images of

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

, the souls of those she condemned, Emma-Ō (one of the kings of hell), horned demons, and bodhissatvas.

Kawanabe Kyōsai was a Japanese painter and caricaturist. In the words of art historian Timothy Clark, "an individualist and an independent, perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting". Biography Living through the Edo period to the Meiji pe ...

is depicted on her dress, or sometimes "Hotei (one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune) in the guise of Jizō, the guardian of children, travelers, and the underworld. Other depictions include

karako ''Karako'' (唐子) is a Japanese term used in art with the depiction of Chinese children playing. The literal translation means "Tang dynasty, Tang children". The children tend to be depicted with a particular hairstyle that is knotted at the t ...

(a Chinese child motif that represents prosperity of the family and its posterity), in which the children stack jewels. The legend was about a beautiful courtesan, a daughter of a

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

, who was "kidnapped by his enemies and was sold to a brothel". She started to call herself "Hell Courtesan" after an encounter with a Buddhist monk, Ikkyu Sojun, who was known for his taste for sake and prostitutes. According to the story, Ikkyū met the Hell Courtesan during one of his visits to the pleasure district.

Santō Kyōden was a Japanese people, Japanese Poet, artist, writer, and the owner of a tobacco shop during the Edo period. His real name was , and he was also known popularly as . He began his professional career illustrating the works of others before writ ...

's book from 1809, ''All Records of Drunken Enlightenment of Our Country'', tells that she "found him dancing with a bunch of skeletons instead of being entertained by dancers and geisha. It occurred to her that he may not be an ordinary human being." She then became his disciple and achieved enlightenment. The story first appeared in 1672, in the anonymously written book ''Ikkyū kantō banashi''. ''Dayu'' was the highest rank of a courtesan, and ''Jigoku'' means not only hell, but the

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

also meant "the lowest streetwalker prostitute in the Edo period".

Gallery

File:Kawanabe Kyōsai, Hell Courtesan (Jigoku-dayū).jpg,

, Hell Courtesan, Ikkyu, and Skeletons, 1880. File:Kawanabe_Kyosai_EnmaToJigokudayu-zu.jpg, Kawanabe Kyōsai, "Emma and the Hell Courtesan" File:The Hell Courtesan late 19th century.jpg, Unknown author, The Hell Courtesan File:Thirty-six Good and Evil Beauties Jigoku Dayu.jpg, Toyohara Kunichika, Thirty-six Good and Evil Beauties: Jigoku Dayu Hell_courtesan_(Jigoku_Dayu)_late_1840s_by_Utagawa_Kuniyoshi.jpg,

Utagawa Kuniyoshi Utagawa Kuniyoshi (, ; 1 January 1798 – 14 April 1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al'' (2005). "Kuniyoshi" in He was a member of the Utaga ...

File:Diptych_print_(BM_1946,0209,0.138.1-2_6).jpg,

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi ; 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese printmaker.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005)"Tsukoka Kōgyō"in ''Japan Encyclopedia,'' p. 1000. Yoshitoshi ha ...

, The Buddhist monk Ikkyu holding a skull before the courtesan Jigoku-dayu File:Diptych_print_(BM_2008,3037.18218_1).jpg,

, Scene from a kabuki play. The kabuki actor Nakamura Shikan (Utaemon IV) as Ikkyu Taro (left) holding down an opponent, extends his sword towards Segawa Kikunojo (right) as the courtesan, Jigoku-dayu File:Ikkyu_Zenji,_Jigoku_Dayu,_Jiraya_一休禅師,地獄太夫,児雷也_(BM_2008,3037.09616).jpg, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Top: Ecchu Province: the Zen monk Ikkyu Zenji with a young attendant and the courtesan Jigoku Dayu kneeling outside. File:Jigoku_地獄_(Hell)_(BM_2008,3037.15503).jpg, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, The courtesan Jigoku-dayu seated on a throne, holding a Buddhist fly-whisk File:NDL-DC_1304199-Utagawa_Kunisada-古今名婦伝_遊女地獄-文久1-crd.jpg,

Utagawa Kunisada Utagawa Kunisada (; 1786 – 12 January 1865), also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III (, ), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. He is considered the most popular, prolific and commercially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th- ...

, from the picture album "Toyokuni Nishiki-e shu" File:NDL-DC_1312829-Tsukioka_Yoshitoshi-日進佐渡流刑／地獄太夫-crd2.jpg,

File:Yoshitoshi_The_Enlightenment.jpg, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, The Enlightenment, February 1890. From the Thirty-six Ghosts series. File:Tōkaidō_gojūsan_tsui,_Seki_by_Hiroshige.jpg,

Hiroshige or , born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...

, "The 53 stations of the Tōkaidō in pairs" File:Kawanabe_Kyosai_Jigoku_Dayu_(Hell_Courtesan).jpg,

, Hell Courtesan no.9, 1874.

References

{{reflist Japanese folklore Ukiyo-e