Courtesans Promenading on the Nakanochō (c. 1790): Art, History and Details

Courtesans Promenading on the Nakanochō (c. 1790) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Utagawa Toyokuni (Japanese, 1769–1825).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Nakanochō was the main street in Yoshiwara, a famous walled pleasure district that housed as many as 4,000 courtesans. In the early evening, elaborately dressed courtesans accompanied by attendants promenaded on the central thoroughfare, as in this scene. The open buildings with shop curtains hanging from their eaves are teahouses, establishments where men could arrange appointments with courtesans of the more prestigious brothels.

Object facts

• Title: Courtesans Promenading on the Nakanochō
• Date: c. 1790
• Creator attribution: Utagawa Toyokuni (Japanese, 1769–1825)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: triptych of color woodblock prints
• Dimensions: Each: 37.8 x 25.8 cm (14 7/8 x 10 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1930.211

Collection credit

Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore

Further reading listed by the museum

• Howard Conley Hollis. "The Edward Loder Whittemore Collection of Japanese Prints." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 4 (1930): 64-66.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.