Drie courtisanes uit het Tamaya huis c. 1828

Utagawa Toyokuni II created this woodblock print of three courtesans from the Tamaya house. This image offers a glimpse into the Yoshiwara district of Edo-period Japan, a floating world of pleasure and entertainment operating under strict social rules. The courtesans, with their elaborate hairstyles and kimonos, were not merely sex workers but also performers, artists, and cultural icons. Their image was carefully constructed and commodified. Prints like this one were a form of advertising, circulating images of beauty and desire, but they also provided commentary on social status, fashion, and the complex relationship between the sexes in a society defined by rigid hierarchies. The existence of such pleasure quarters and the artistic genres that celebrated them points to both the repressiveness and the transgressive energies of Edo society. By consulting historical documents, literature, and other visual sources, we can gain a deeper understanding of the social and cultural dynamics at play. Art is always embedded in a specific historical and institutional context, and the historian's role is to illuminate that relationship.