Examining the Glittering World of Yoshiwara, the Pleasure Quarter of Edo

Lecture at the Museum Rietberg: Professor Dr. Hans B. Thomsen

The images by Utamaro, Eishi, and others depict a glittering world of the Japanese courtesans and the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter district. These prints present a highly appealing world full of beauty, youth, and delightful moments, and the modern viewer is easily drawn into the prints and into a wish to share in the lovely vision of the beautiful women.

The daily realities of the district were in fact quite different from those on the prints. The presentation will be an exploration into the Western reception of the woodblock printed images of Yoshiwara and a look into the real world of the courtesans, based on the documents and the printed and material culture of the period. We will see a world that was perhaps not as glittering as the prints, but nonetheless had its own proud culture and traditions. Although the realities of the Yoshiwara district were quite different, they are in the end no less interesting than the world we see in the woodblock prints.