Courtesan or Actor as Courtesan Pouring Tea by the Light of a Lantern
Utagawa Toyokuni I Japanese
Edo period (1615–1868)
Not on view
Though Tokugawa sumptuary laws extended to a courtesan's bedding (yagu), this item became progressively more lavish in the eighteenth century. A contemporary writer has described embroidered futons and black silk velvet sleeping robes (yogi) lined with red crepe and padded with finest cotton. Bedding was ostentatiously displayed in brothels as a symbol of status. In this unfinished ink sketch, perhaps a leaf intended for a book of erotica, a courtesan crouches beside her cast-off sleeping robe, which is curled in the shape of her body, and pours tea for an unseen companion.
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