青楼俄全盛遊|The New Year Niwaka Festival in the Pleasure Quarters
ca. 1796
Medium
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
14 5/8 x 9 3/4 in. (37.1 x 24.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936
Accession Number
JP2418
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the lively "floating world" of Edo-period with Eishōsai Chōki's wood print *The New Year Niw Festival in the Pleasure Qu* (ca. 1796). This enchanting ukiyo-e work captures the exuberant chaos of a New Year's celebration in Yoshiwara, Tokyo's renowned pleasure district. During the Edo period (1615–8), such festivals like Niwaka allowed courtesans, patrons, and revelers to don masks and costumes, blurring social boundaries in a burst of playful anonymity and merriment. Chōki, a master of bijin-ga (images of beautiful women), populates the scene with elegant figures—men and women in vi...
About the Artist
Eishōsai Chōki (Japanese) · 1700 –1900
Japanese, active late 18th–early 19th century