Anno Moyoco (b. 1971)
Untitled (Illustration from the text Sakuran)
Japan, 2001-2003
Painting; ink and color on paper
Copyright: Anno Moyoco / Cork Inc.
Loan from Moyoco Anno / Cork Inc.
(L2014-47.04)

This original painting, reproduced in the Japanese edition of Sakuran, depicts a dōchū (parade through the Yoshiwara district led by the top-ranking oiran of each brothel), a highlight of the harvest festival held on the first day of the eighth lunar month. Representing the Tamagiku brothel in the parade is the oiran Mikumo, surrounded by male assistants, and followed by her adolescent attendants (kamuro) and teenaged apprentices (shinzō). Although in processions held at other times of the year, an oiran typically wore a brightly colored kimono, for the harvest festival procession, she wore a white kimono.

Opulent dōchū processions similar to this one have a long history in ukiyo-e, and were illustrated by such eminent designers of woodblock prints as Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764).