Page 477 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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280 This diminutive painting, smaller than though a woman, has followed in the
Katsushika Oi an average-sized print, is rendered in footsteps of her father in portraying
(active mid-nineteenth century) deep shadows and captures the lugu- courtesans with inexpressive, per-
Yoshiwara at Night brious realm of the Yoshiwara demi- fectly stereotyped, masklike facades.
monde. The wooden latticed windows,
c. 18505 which allow passersby to view the Outside, lanterns of various shapes
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper courtesans whose services are for glow brightly in the darkened street,
3
3
26.3 x 39.8 (io /s x i5 /4) sale, suggest to the modern viewer illuminating a procession of courte-
The Ota Memorial Museum of Art, the prisonlike reality of the bordellos. sans, child attendants (fcamuro), and
Tokyo idle spectators. The Chinese charac-
The shadows, no doubt intended as ters on three of the lanterns can
a technical tour de force, convey to
• Many of the paintings by Katsushika the modern viewers the gloom of the be deciphered as o, i, and ei, forming
Oi, daughter of the famous ukiyoe situation of the bordellos at the end "Ôiei," an alternative form of the
artist Katsushika Hokusai, experiment of the Edo period. artist's name. The lantern attached to
with exaggerated shading and lighting the building identifies this bordello
effects — testimony to the fascination Inside, light filtered through a three- as the Izumiya and includes the
late-Edo artists had with western sided screen with translucent white catchphrase greeting, "A thousand
painting techniques. paper illuminates the parlor area. The customers, ten thousand welcomes,"
courtesans, faces powered pure white, Edo's version of "Come one, come
are bedecked in gorgeous costumes all." JTC
and elaborate hairdos festooned with
hairpins and spangles. The artist,