Art Institute of Chicago

Asakusa Rice Fields and Torinomachi Festival (Asakusa tanbo Torinomachi mode), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)"

Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重

Date: 1857
Medium: Color woodblock print; oban
Culture: Japan
Department: Arts of Asia
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago

This peaceful scene of a cat perched on a windowsill takes place on the second story of a brothel. Hairpins, a wad of tissue paper, and a towel hint at the room’s owner. The cat itself may be a stand-in for the woman, as sex workers were often associated with the grace and aloofness of felines. In the distance, small figures move in a procession to a nearby temple. On festival days, the pleasure quarters were open to all, and the courtesans took extra customers.

View at Art Institute of Chicago ↗

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Linked open data

Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.

Object type: AAT300041273

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.

Asakusa Rice Fields and Torinomachi Festival (Asakusa tanbo Torinomachi mode), No.101 from the series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)”

Art Institute of Chicago

Asakusa Rice Fields and Torinomachi Festival (Asakusa tanbo Torinomachi mode), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)"

Art Institute of Chicago

Asakusa Rice Fields and Torinomachi Festival (Asakusa tanbo Torinomachi mode), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)"

Art Institute of Chicago

Love at the Brothel Gate

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Pine of Success and Onmayagashi, Asakusa River (Asakusagawa shubi no matsu Oumayagashi), from the series One Hundred Views of Edo (Meisho Edo Hyakkei)

Art Institute of Chicago