Page 437 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

241 at San'ya Canal. The second and third juxtaposed with softly outlined sil-
Hanabusa Itchô (1652 -1724) scenes are set on the main street houettes of figures against the paper
Scenes of the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter of Yoshiwara and show courtesans sliding panels.
awaiting customers in open-latticed
c. 1703 Each scene was originally painted on
Handscroll; ink and color on paper parlors. Then bustling food preparation a separate sheet of paper, but mount-
in the bordello kitchen is contrasted
397X13 5 (15 V8X53Y8 ) with the languor of courtesans in ing them in handscroll format seems
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo to have been Itchó's own idea; his
the next room, as they read letters, colophon indicates that he made the
adjust their hair, or re-tie an obi (see
• This handscroll captures five scenes above). Evening has arrived in the scroll at the behest of a close acquain-
from a day in the life of courtesans closing scene, and a bird's-eye view tance. An inscription at the end of
and clients in the Yoshiwara pleasure of the courtesans' private rooms is the handscroll suggests that the artist
quarters. In the first a samurai and a created these images from memory
companion, both incognito, are fer- after he had been exiled from the
ried in a "boar's tusk" boat to the dock