Artworks

Yoshiwara no tei (The Appearance of Yoshiwara): teahouse scene

Artwork · Hishikawa Moronobu · 1678 · Japanese woodblock print · Tokyo National Museum

From the set of single-sheet prints of 1678 by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694), who brought the print designer out of anonymity and was the first to sign his prints — the age when the novels of Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693) were published with ever better illustrations: in a teahouse of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter patrons sitting on the floor watch a courtesan dance to a drum and two samisen; on the left a two-panel screen bears Moronobu’s signature. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 280–281, fig. 319. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.