Artist: Takahashi Shotei
Medium: Original Limited-Edition Japanese Woodblock Print
Series Title: Evening
Edition: First and only; #/300
Date: 1929
Publisher: Fusui Gabo
Reference No.: Folk: #326; pg. 66
Size: 10 -3/4 x 15 -1/2 "
Condition: Very fine
Notes: A highly prized limited-edition design by the artist. Signed: 'Hiroaki' and sealed: 'Hiroaki saku'.
We, the viewer, stand outside a brothel in Yoshiwara, one of the three licensed yūkaku red-light districts in the city of Edo, now Tokyo. Light streams out from the glowing interior, casting slatted shadows on dark clad observers. 14 women are visible inside, wearing colorful clothing and elaborate upswept Yoko-hyogo ‘butterfly’ hairstyles, pinned with bamboo comb wings. They sit in ceremony, reading or in lost in low conversation, a far cry from the lurid red-light displays of Western cities. It’s a surprisingly quiet scene. The courtesans are bathed in warm light, peaceful and serene. The crowd, such that it is, seems more reverent than selacious. Men and women observe, dressed in simple clothes, faces obscured by the glow. Their postures are relaxed; they've been watching for a while. In Edo Japan, pleasure quarters like these were carefully guarded, and the yūjo were only allowed to leave the walls of their district once a year for hanami, the sacred custom of viewing the cherry blossoms.