Designer: Kitao Shigemasa | Carver: David Bull | Printer: David Bull

Size: 22.5cm by 15.5cm | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [M] ?

Price: $ 70.00£ 56.50€ 64.50 [Reprinting]

Description: The image you see here is one leaf taken from the book Seiro Bijin Awase Sugata Kagami (Collected Beauties of the Green Houses). This famous book was published in 1776, and was a joint production of two Edo publishers and two well-known artists: Katsukawa Shunsho and Kitao Shigemasa (the page we have reproduced is one of those designed by Shigemasa). The book is a kind of guide to the Yoshiwara district, with each double page layout depicting a scene at one particular 'house', and featuring some of the women who worked there.

[From Dave's original notes: "I have rather mixed feelings about including such a print in my Surimono Album series. It is of course, just a piece of paper with an attractive image on it, so perhaps nothing more needs to be said, but I can't help thinking about just what it is that we are looking at here - basically an advertisement for a house of prostitution and one of the women there (in the original book, the names of the houses and the names of the women are featured prominently).

"I was discussing this with one of the collectors who visited my workroom recently, and she explained that the Yoshiwara was one of the main places in Edo society where men of culture could meet and enjoy their discussions - that to think of the Yoshiwara wasn't simply to think of sex. In other words, she pointed out that it wasn't such a 'bad' place, and it was no matter of shame for a man to be going there. It is never a good idea to judge behaviour of one era by the standards of another; and I am certainly not going to do so now ... not after more than two hundred years have passed. And it would certainly be meaningless to think of the young woman depicted in this print as a 'bad woman' - she probably had very little control over her situation; it seems that many of those women were sold into that kind of life by their family."

In any case, we hope you enjoy our beautiful new version of this old print ...