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Introduction

The Pleasure of Edo

Life in the Yoshiwara
March 24 - June 18, 2000

After the Tokugawa shogun Ieyasu (1543 – 1616) established his political control of Japan in the early 17th century, a relatively long period of isolation, continuous peace, and economic development followed. The Tokugawa shoguns designated Edo (modern Tokyo) as their capital, and by the early 18th century the city was inhabited by over a million people. Its flourishing economy was fueled by the feudal lords (daimyō), who were required by the shogun to house their families in Edo and maintain permanent residences there. As the economy grew, the merchant class (chōnin) prospered and developed its own distinctive subculture, identified with the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure in the theaters, teahouses, and brothels of the city.

Established in 1657, Edo’s newly licensed pleasure district (Shin Yoshiwara) was located in a walled compound in a suburb reachable by boat via the Sumida River, which ran through the center of the city. The famed beauties of the district set the fashion standard and were celebrated in woodblock prints hawked on the streets of the city. Exorbitant fees for the services of top-ranked courtesans could, over time, bankrupt even wealthy visitors. The woodblock prints depicting the great beauties occasionally were used as vehicles for social commentary on high culture. By parodying classical Chinese and Japanese literary and artistic sources, these pictures of the so-called “floating world” (ukiyo-e) of the Yoshiwara appropriated the cultural legitimacy of their elevated models and played at assuming a similar respectability.

The group of prints assembled here depict aspects of life in the Yoshiwara in the late 18th and 19th centuries: the formal public processions of elaborately dressed courtesans, the teahouse entertainments attended by courtesans (prostitutes) and geisha (entertainers), and the preparatory rituals of assuming elegant dress, so necessary for women whose appearance ensured their livelihood.

Selected Objects

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

Contemporary brocades of fashions at the imperial palace (Gosho moyo tosei nishiki), 1843-47

Chōbunsai Eishi

The daughter of Taira no Kiyomori using a mirror to draw her self-portrait to send to her mother (Kiyomori sokujo no ga jizo o utsushi haha ni kore o okuru zu ), 1790's

Utagawa Toyokuni

The twelfth month: Falling snow, Mukojima [Geisha and attendants in snow] (Juni gatsu: Mukojima yuki furi no zu), 1810s

Utagawa Toyokuni II (Toyoshige)

The courtesan Tsukasa and her two kamuro Agena and Kocho of the Ogiya (Ogiyanaitsukasa agena kocho: Daimonguchi no rakugan), 1830's

Utagawa Toyokuni II (Toyoshige)

The courtesan Shirokawa and her two kamuro Nagisa and Yumeno of the Tamaya (Tamaya nai shirokawa nagisa yumeno), 1830's

Kikukawa Eizan

Three elegant beauties enjoying the evening cool (Fūryū yusuzumi san bijin), ca. 1810

Kitagawa Utamaro

Totsuka, mid 1700s-early 1800s

Keisai Eisen

Ono no Komachi at Sekidera (Sekidera komachi), ca. 1825

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

Enjoying Flowers in the Inner Garden (Oniwa hana no asobi), 1840s

Kitagawa Utamaro

Left panel of the triptych Washing and Stretching Cloth (Arai-bari), ca. 1796-1797

Kitao Masanobu

Takigawa of the Ogiya (Ogiyanai takigawa), Spring 1784

Chōbunsai Eishi

Mitsuhama of the Hyogoya (Hyogoya Mitsuhama), 1790's

Yashima Gakutei

View of the Yoshiwara, 1820s

Kikukawa Eizan

Beauty (Bijin), 1820's

Kitagawa Utamaro

A parody (mitate) of Act 5 of Chūshingura (Treasury of the Loyal Retainers) with a courtesan of the Naniwaya (go-danme (Act 5) Naniwaya (inscribed to l. of figure) ), ca. 1794-1795

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

The Pleasure of Edo : Life in the Yoshiwara

March 24 - June 18, 2000
View Checklist PDF

RISD Museum

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