Twee courtisanes op het balkon van een theehuis 1780 - 1790

This woodblock print was made by Katsukawa Shunshō in Japan sometime between 1775 and 1795. The print depicts two courtisanes on the balcony of a tea house. Tea houses in the Edo period were important social spaces for both men and women of different social classes. It provided them with a safe space in which to enjoy the arts. Tea houses also afforded the pleasure of viewing and being viewed, not unlike today's social media platforms. Woodblock prints such as these were affordable and therefore accessible to a wide range of people. We might ask, what role does the artist play in either upholding or critiquing the institutional norms of his day? How does this artwork reflect or comment on Japanese society and culture? To understand the print more fully, we might look at historical records, literature and other cultural artifacts from the Edo period. The meaning of art is contingent on its social and institutional context.