2-723-881 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Boat to the Yoshiwara, 1800s. Attendants with checkered robes serve refreshment to a client on his way to the Yoshiwara, the storied men's pleasure district of the metropolis of Edo, today's Tokyo. A figure at the fore of the boat tends to the kitchen. A courtesan at the aft surveys the scene along the Sumida River, perhaps contemplating her strategy for the evening's program of entertainment. The gate of Mimeguri Shrine appears along the opposite shore. Acquaintances converse in modest commuter boats, and fishers put in to a tiny island. Ukiyo-e artist Teisai Hokuba placed the boat near the entrance to the Sanya Canal, where pleasure seekers would disembark.