This is a page from a book featuring popular courtesans in the city of Edo. Okumura Masanobu, only fifteen years old when he designed the book, closely followed an earlier publication by Torii Kiyonobu printed in 1700. Consequently, the images exhibit little of Masanobu's personal style, but they reveal his precocious talent and presage his future fame. The woman depicted here went by the pseudonym "Wakoku", as is noted on the print. Wakoku, literally "Land of Peace," was also an ancient appellation for Japan. As an emblem of Japan itself, the woman wears a robe decorated with three-footed crows called yata-garasu. According to legend, these mythological birds served as messengers between the Sun Goddess and Jimmu during his military campaign to become the nation's first emperor. The butterfly-shaped emblem (upper right) appears to have been Wakoku's personal crest.