Utagawa Toyoharu 歌川豊春 (1735-1814)
Scene of Shin Yoshiwara Naka-no-chō in Japan
(Wakoku Keiseki Shin Yoshiwara Naka-no-chō no Zu 和国景跡新吉原中ノ町之図)
Japan, Edo period, c. 1770
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Gift of James A. Michener, 1957
(13905)

Towards the east one could see the Sumida River flowing down majestically through Asakusa, the smoke of Hashiba wafting in the wind. In the north, a vast field of short susuki [eulalia] stretched as far as the post station of Senju. In the west stood the Hall of Kannon, flanked by the temple of Sanjūsangendō. In front was the sashlike strip of causeway, the Dike of Japan, with a throng of customers fighting for their position on the road like ants. Inside the quarter lived more than five hundred women of pleasure… competing and prospering night and day.

-Hanaikada, Tales of a Grumbling Otokodate, 1660. (Translation by Cecilia Segawa Seigle)

In this perspective print (uki-e), the viewer is situated in the middle of Naka-no-chō, the main boulevard in the Yoshiwara, and faces northward.

View info on museum database (enabled through support by the Robert F. Lange Foundation)