100 Views of Edo # 38 Deluxe Edition by Ando Hiroshige

Artist: Ando Utagawa Hiroshige (1787-1858)

Title: 100 Views of Edo #38 - Dawn Inside the Yoshiwara

1st Publication: April 1857

Size: 9 x 13-1/4 + Margins as shown

Date of this edition: April 1857

Publisher: Uoya Eikichi

Carver: Hori-Sen

Condition: Near Mint. Couple of tiny pin holes near the Censor Seal. Great fresh colors, mica in the sky area as seen on pictures. Exceptional condition.

Notes: This is a first edition, Deluxe edition with Mica in the sky area. Usually, this technique was reserved for good customer or prestigious people, as the technology was fairly new, expensive and difficult to master.
Great print, never been mounted, a real masterpiece from this 100 views of Edo series.

More about this print: Daybreak had classic associations in Japanese literature with parting lovers, and the scene played out by the four figures at the center of this print is in keeping with that tradition. It is early dawn in the Yoshiwara, the popular licensed pleasure quarters for the Edo demimonde.

To the left is a departing guest, his "cheek-cover hood" discreetly in place for the journey home. An attendant to the rear seems anxious to return to bed, while another one with a lantern stands in front of the guest, facing awkwardly away from him and toward the courtesan, who is clad in a bright-red overgarment and wears raised black clogs that mark her high rank.