People Partying

Two couples and an attendant are depicted in a casual moment, as they lounge on the floor with three red and gold-lacquered boxes of food and small lacquered sake cups; the female attendant is poised to pour more sake. The setting is most likely the interior of a brothel, and the informal appearance of the bareheaded man, whose robe has slipped off of his torso, suggests that the revelers are well on their way to intoxication. The somewhat disheveled state of the courtesans’ "karawa" chignons adds to the impression that the drinking party is progressing. Both of the male guests are wearing swords, although not the daishō, or matched pair of swords, that could be owned only by samurai after the "sword hunt" of warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1588. The older man, in the lower right, sports the slouchy brown cloth cap that was worn by some men of the merchant/middle class and appears as an accoutrement in various ukiyo-e paintings.

The touches of gold in the composition may indicate that the location of this intimate party is a pleasure house of more than humble means.