Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Welcome to the Yoshiwara, the government-sanctioned brothel district on the
outskirts of Edo City.
While we mentioned that the Kabuki theater was instrumental in developing
the *** culture of early modern Japan,
nothing was more influential in that regard in this district and its
inhabitants.
If you're looking for evidence that the people of this culture thought of sex as
a natural facet of daily life,
look no further than these images of the Yoshiwara teeming with visitors
as if it were a contemporary American shopping mall on the day after
Thanksgiving.
Men wander along Naka-no-cho Boulevard with enormous paper lanterns
in their hands, while the courtesans, often flanked by their kamuro
assistants, stand nobly in front of their respective brothels.
Can we trust, however, that the artist is faithfully documenting the appearance of
the Yoshiwara
and the extent to which visitors patronized it,
or is this image an aggrandizement
of its actual popularity? The fact
that other depictions and verbal descriptions of the brothel district,
including other artworks displayed in this exhibition, are consistent with
Toyoharu's image indicate that these women in fact enjoyed astounding
fame during their lifetime.