Utagawa Toyokuni II

In this print, Kunisada has borrowed the 11th-century Chinese landscape theme of the “Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers” as the basis for his series of “Eight Views of the Yoshiwara.” The inset scene depicts geese descending over the Taimon, the great gate of the Yoshiwara pleasure district in Edo (modern Tokyo). The reference is to the Xiao-Xiang scene of “Wild Geese Descending to the Sandbar,” but instead of the mist-filled river landscape of the Chinese original, the geese fly toward the Yoshiwara, in a humorous comment on the lofty character of the original Chinese subject matter and the final destination of the geese in this print.