Page 383 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

classes enjoy the spectacle from their seats in the pounded-earth area, while wealthier theater patrons
watch from private enclosures. The right panels of the left screen of the same set show a behind-the-
scenes view of the bustling greenroom adjoining the stage, where musicians and actors of all types
prepare for their entrances (see detail p. 380). In this remarkable laboratory of transformations of the
human figure, some actors are donning demon masks while others dress up as courtiers, priests, street
gallants, and medieval warriors. Shielded by a magnificent gold folding screen with flower motifs,

an onnagata, or a performer of female roles, is being dressed by his attendant. Judging from the lavish
robes and hairstyle, the male actor is being transformed into a high-ranking courtesan.
By the end of the seventeenth century prostitutes of the government-sanctioned bordellos in
382 the major cities joined kabuki actors as the most common subjects of popular art of the period. Artists
took as their subject matter prostitutes of every variety, from common streetwalkers who operated out-
side the licensed quarters to courtesans (here used to refer generically to high-ranking prostitutes) and
geisha (who made their living primarily as performers of music and dance). Government-sanctioned
prostitution was viewed as a safety valve for society in which every aspect of political, economic, and
personal interaction was carefully regulated by Confucian authority. Each of the great Japanese cities
had its own courtesan district — Yoshiwara in Edo, Shimabara (the successor to Yanagimachi) in Kyoto,
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Shinmachi in Osaka, and Maruyama in Nagasaki. But prostitutes worked the streets in other, unsanc-
tioned areas, too.
Despite the tragic realities of a system built on sexual slavery, Yoshiwara, both real and fictive,
captivated the imagination of the townspeople. Primary attention was accorded well-known courtesans
and geisha and teahouse waitresses affiliated with established bordellos there. Artists turned idealized
images of these women into a separate genre of prints and painting, allowing art and reality to rein-
force each other continually. Courtesans were presented by ukiyoe artists as perfectly beautiful women
in gorgeous robes and fabulous coiffures, at the cutting edge of style, accomplished in music and literary
arts, aloof in demeanor, and unapproachable to all but the wealthiest and most sophisticated patrons.
In reality, only a small percentage of courtesans could command such respect, but an entire unsavory
system gained a certain cultural credibility in the creation of an ideal.

Courtesans made quite a splash during their public processions in the Yoshiwara district: their
made-up lips and eyes stood out against faces powdered white; their fantastically expensive garments
reflected the latest fashion; and elaborate hairdos festooned with lacquer and gold hairpins bespoke
their rank in the brothel hierarchy. Ukiyoe artists took advantage of the public's fascination with the
lives and affairs of famous courtesans by fabricating an idealized version of the bordello culture. In the
earliest stages of depiction artists represented courtesans in fully appointed settings — showing them
interacting with patrons, playing board games, joining in poetry-writing contests, dancing, sharing food
and drink, or simply frolicking in brothel public rooms.
Moronobu was one of the greatest chroniclers of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters. His images
of the floating world of the bordello and theater districts have a disarming simplicity, or, might we say,
an elemental passion. Adding to the visual impact of his work in various media (including woodblock
prints and illustrations) is the meticulous rendering of textile designs. Though in Moronobu's case we
may deduce an indebtedness to training in the family business of designing and making embroidery or
dyed patterns for textiles, we can generalize and state that, during this age, without the ability to create
meticulous textile designs an artist could not have made his mark in genre painting.