When the port of Yokohama, about thirty miles southwest of Edo, opened to Westerners in 1859, near the end of the Edo period, ukiyo-e artists started illustrating the foreigners in Yokohama and creating imaginary scenes of foreign countries, known as Yokohama-e (Yokohama pictures).
As one of the major early printmakers of Yokohama-e, Yoshikazu, a pupil of Kuniyoshi, produced many views of Yokohama. This scene shows the largest pleasure quarter for foreigners, Gankirō, located in the Miyozaki pleasure quarters, which were similar to those in Yoshiwara, in Edo. Foreigners, courtesans, and servants are arranged in a complex interior space with confusing multiple perspectives. In the foreground several foreigners are shown eating, drinking, and singing; one man has stripped to his underwear to dance.
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Title:Foreigners Enjoying Themselves in the Gankirō
Artist:Utagawa Yoshikazu (Japanese, active ca. 1850–70)
Period:Edo period (1615–1868)
Date:ca. 1861
Culture:Japan
Medium:Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper
Dimensions:Image: 14 1/2 in. × 30 in. (36.8 × 76.2 cm) Mat: 20 3/4 in. × 37 in. (52.7 × 94 cm)
Classification:Prints
Credit Line:Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1959
Accession Number:JP3264
Signature: Issen Kazushige ga
Marking: Censor/Date seal: Tori shō aratame
Publisher's seal: Jin
Lincoln Kirstein American, New York (until 1959; donated to MMA).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," May 20–September 7, 1986.
Santa Fe. New Mexico Museum of Art. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," June 28–August 3, 1987.
Portland Art Museum. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," August 28–October 4, 1987.
Billings. Yellowstone Art Museum. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," October 31, 1987–January 3, 1988.
Santa Fe Community College Art Gallery. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," February 13–March 20, 1988.
Albany Institute of History & Art. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," April 16–July 17, 1988.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," August 6–November 6, 1988.
Charleston. Museum at Sunrise. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," November 26, 1988–January 1, 1989.
Pullman. Washington State University. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," January 21–February 26, 1989.
Champaign. Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," March 11–April 23, 1989.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," March 13–June 18, 1989.
Syracuse. Everson Museum of Art. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," July 8–August 13, 1989.
Storrs. William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," September 2–October 15, 1989.
Berliner Festspiele. "Japan and Europe: 1543–1929," September 12, 1993–December 12, 1993.
Meech-Pekarik, Julia. The World of the Meiji Print: Impressions of a New Civilization. New York: Weatherhill, 1986, color pl. 8.
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