- Gallery Text
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Populated by more than 60 figures, this spectacular visualization of the Yoshiwara, Edo’s licensed pleasure district, offers an insider’s view of the main entrance to the quarter. At right, commercial deliverymen and clients—some elegantly dressed, others attempting to conceal their identity—enter the urban fantasyland through the "Great Gate." Within, the viewer is greeted by the sight of courtesans and their retinues parading around the blossoming cherry trees that were brought into the quarter each spring, doubling the opportunities for male customers to view Edo’s "flowers." In private rooms above the street, where female entertainers ply their clients with food, drink, and music, the revelry has already begun.
- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- TL42391.17
- People
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Katsukawa Shunkō II 勝川春好, Japanese (1762 - c. 1830)
- Title
- Celebration at the Entrance of the New Yoshiwara
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- screen, painting
- Date
- early 19th century
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
- Period
- Edo period, 1615-1868
- Culture
- Japanese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/340565
- Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Two-panel folding screen; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions
- image only, each panel: 148.6 x 79.7 cm (58 1/2 x 31 3/8 in.)
with mount, each panel: 168 x 89 cm (66 1/8 x 35 1/16 in.) - Inscriptions and Marks
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- signature: (damaged) 春好画 [Painted by Katsukawa Shunkō]
- seal: upper; square, relief: 勝川 [Katsukawa]
- seal: lower, damaged: illegible
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Promised gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
- Object Number
- TL42391.17
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Publication History
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Narazaki Muneshige, ed., Nikuhitsu ukiyoe, vol 4: Shunsho, Zauho Press/Editions Shueisha (Tokyo, Japan, 1982), illus. #33
Narazaki Muneshige, Nikuhitsu ukiyoe meisakuten : saki kaoru Edo no joseibi, Asahi Shimbusha (Tokyo, 1984), illus. 33
Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Nikuhitsu ukiyoe taikan, vol. 7: Manno Bijutsukan, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan, 1996), illus. 39
Sebastian Izzard LLC, Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e: Paintings from the Manno Art Museum (New York, NY, 2003), illus. #21, p. 73
- Exhibition History
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Exhibition of Masterworks of Ukiyo-e Painting: The Bloom and Fragrant Beauty of Edo Women, Nihonbashi Tokyu Department Store, 02/17/1984 - 02/29/1984
32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/23/2022 - 12/05/2022
Japanese Genre Painting, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 05/10/2015
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
