Untitled

Utagawa Yoshikazu

ca. 1861 · Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

When the port of Yokohama, about thirty miles southwest of Edo, opened to Westerners in 1859, near the end of the Edo period, ukiyo-e artists started illustrating the foreigners in Yokohama and creating imaginary scenes of foreign countries, known as Yokohama-e (Yokohama pictures). As one of the major early printmakers of Yokohama-e, Yoshikazu, a pupil of Kuniyoshi, produced many views of Yokohama. This scene shows the largest pleasure quarter for foreigners, Gankirō, located in the Miyozaki pleasure quarters, which were similar to those in Yoshiwara, in Edo. Foreigners, courtesans, and servants are arranged in a complex interior space with confusing multiple perspectives. In the foreground several foreigners are shown eating, drinking, and singing; one man has stripped to his underwear to dance.

Artist

Utagawa Yoshikazu

Date

ca. 1861

Medium

Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1959