Entertainment Scene
c. 1710–53
Medium
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
175 × 144.7 cm · image: 56.4 × 135.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
1985.17
Tags
About this artwork
This painting captures the moment when a high-ranking courtesan accompanied by two trainees makes her grand entrance into a salon. The guest of honor, a samurai who reclines beneath a striped robe while dangling his fan, turns from the musical entertainment to gaze at the spectacle of her arrival. The fortunes of everyone in the room depend on how she orchestrates the rest of the evening, as the more the samurai spends on her services, the more trickles down to the other entertainers who are pre...