Teahouse - Yotsuya Arakicho

Arakicho in Yotsuya was one of old Tokyo's most atmospheric surviving pocket neighborhoods — a cluster of small lanes behind the main street lined with traditional wooden buildings housing small restaurants, teahouses, and sake shops. Koitsu renders the lantern-lit alley at evening, the warm glow of the establishments spilling onto the stone-paved path between high wooden fences. The scene captures a Tokyo that was rapidly disappearing even as Koitsu painted it, making the image a document of preservation as much as artistic observation.