A House of Courtesans, from the series "The Appearance of Yoshiwara (Yoshiwara no tei)"

From the series The Appearance of Yoshiwara (Yoshiwara no tei), this circa 1681 to 1684 hand-colored [oban](/glossary/oban) sumizuri-e in the Art Institute of Chicago depicts the interior of a Yoshiwara courtesan house, one of the foundational images of the pleasure-quarter genre. The series Yoshiwara no tei was an extended documentary treatment of the licensed pleasure district, ranging across its streets, its houseboats, its teahouses, and its courtesan residences, and A House of Courtesans is among the most architecturally specific of the series. Moronobu's composition organizes the interior through a careful layering of architectural elements, sliding screens, tatami platforms, the latticed grills that separated the courtesans' public display areas from the street, all rendered in his confident line. The figures, courtesans, attendants, clients, and house staff, are arranged with a sociological precision that records the hierarchies and protocols of the courtesan house. The hand-coloring, likely tan and additional washes added after printing, highlights certain textile patterns and architectural elements to direct the eye through the dense composition. The series as a whole helped establish the Yoshiwara as the central setting of [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) for two centuries.