Morning parting

Kitagawa Utamaro · 1800

Colour woodblock print, Morning parting by Kitagawa Utamaro, published by Moriya Jihei in Edo (modern Tokyo), Japan, in 1800. Left sheet from a triptych, ōban format, nishiki-e print. With the gate of Mimeguri Shrine visible across the Sumida River in the background, this scene of clients returning home is not taken from Edo's regulated brothel district - the Yoshiwara - but rather the Yama no Shuku area. When fires ravaged the Yoshiwara, brothel keepers would petition for the district to have 'temporary lodgings' elsewhere. The lodgings shown here likely relate to a fire that swept through the Yoshiwara in the spring of 1800.