Japanese Erotic Art And The Life Of The Courtesan

"Richard Illing describes life in the Yoshiwara and explains how the outlook of the Japanese people, for whom these prints were intended as edification and pleasure, differed so greatly from that of the West in sexual matters. Each of the forty-one color plates is accompanied by a detailed caption."--Front jacket

Drawing on both historical and literary sources, examines life in the pleasure houses of Japan during the Edo period from the early 1600s to 1868. Among the topics are the origins, illegal competitors, the cost of a visit, the treatment of the courtesans, traditions and protocols, Yoshiwara arts, th

Japanese historian Louis Perez brings Mikiso Hane's rich and beloved account of early Japanese history up-to-date in this thoroughly revised Second Edition of Premodern Japan. The text traces the key developments of Japanese history in the premodern period, including the establishment of the imperial dynasty, early influences from China and Korea, the rise of the samurai class and the establishment of feudalism, the culture and society of the long Tokugawa period, the rise of Confucianism and Shinto nationalism, and finally, the end of Tokugawa rule. While the text provides many political developments through the early modern period, it also integrates the social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of Japanese history as well. Perez's updates to the text provide a comprehensive overview of the major social, political, and religious trends in premodern Japan as well as offering the most current scholarship.

"Lust will not keep…Something must be done about it."—inscription at the entrance to Yoshiwara For over a hundred years the Western world has heard whispers of the pleasure city, Yoshiwara, set behind its walls in the city of Edo itself, which is today called Tokyo. Here was an eastern red light district, the place for the hedonists, the woman–seekers, the sensual plasure–hunters of old Japan. There, behind moated walls, an erotic Japanese world unmatched by the West was created by beautiful courtesans, geishas, dancers, actors, and artists. To this "floating world" came the hedonists and the sensual pleasure hunters of old Japan. Many myths and legends encircled the secrets of the Yoshiwara, and still do. In time other Japanese cities tried to copy the original, sometimes even calling their district for geishas and courtesans and pretty waitress girls a Yoshiwara. Stephen and Ethel Longstreet use prints and fascinating original sources to trace the rise and fall of this city within a city, a sanctioned preserve of teahouses and brothels that was not abolished until 1958, sketching a vivid, no–holds–bared portrait of social and sexual more in Japan's capital.

Named a Library Journal Best Reference of 2023 - From Library Journal's Starred Review: "This ambitious and entertaining update solidifies Berger’s volume as a must-have title for librarians, booksellers, collectors, and students of the book arts and book history." This new edition of The Dictionary of the Book adds more than 700 new entries and many new illustrations and brings the vocabulary and theory of bookselling and collecting into the modern commercial and academic world, which has been forced to adjust to a new reality. The definitive glossary of the book covers all the terms needed for a thorough understanding of how books are made, the materials they are made of, and how they are described in the bookselling, book collecting, and library worlds. Every key term—more than 2,000—that could be used in booksellers’ catalogs, library records, and collectors’ descriptions of their holdings is represented in this dictionary. This authoritative source covers all areas of book knowledge, including: The book as physical object Typeface terminology Paper terminology Printing Book collecting Cataloging Book design Bibliography as a discipline, bibliographies, and bibliographical description Physical Condition and how to describe it Calligraphy Language of manuscripts Writing implements Librarianship Legal issues Parts of a book Book condition terminology Pricing of books Buying and selling Auctions Items one will see an antiquarian book fairs Preservation and conservation issues, and the notion of restoration Key figures, presses / publishers, and libraries in the history of books Book collecting clubs and societies How to read and decipher new and old dealers’ catalogs And much more The Dictionary also contains an extensive bibliography—more than 1,000 key readings in the book world and it gives current (and past) definitions of terms whose meaning has shifted over the centuries. More than 200 images accompany the entries, making the work even more valuable for understanding the terms described.

A courtesan's day in the carefree atmosphere of the famous pleasure quarter the Yoshiwara in Edo (present-day Tokyo) was carefully planned to an hourly schedule. This sequence of twelve and later twenty-four hours proved a convenient device for Japanese print artists and their publishers when devising sets of prints showing favorite beauties of the day engaged in daily activities. This volume presents three prints series on the same theme produced over the course of a century. Besides being an obvious aid to collectors of these sets, it also provides a fascinating insight into the world of the female entertainer in Edo, and later Tokyo. The book opens with Cecilia Seigle's comprehensive introduction to life in this highly structured and tightly controlled pleasure quarter, offering insights into the often hard and occasionally glamorous life of the courtesan in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Edo. The first series treated here, Utamaro's famous 'Twelve Hours in Yoshiwara' (Seirô jûni toki tsuzuki), c. 1794, is shown in all its glory with descriptions by Tim Clark, Keeper of Japanese Antiquities at the British Museum. We then leap forward in time to the Meiji period when the status of women in Japanese society, and particularly those in the Yoshiwara, underwent substantial change. Alfred Marks discusses Yoshitoshi's set 'Twenty-four hours in Shinbashi and Yanagibashi' (Shinryû nijûshi toki), 1880, with translations of the copious textual information on the prints. Amy Newland concludes by examining Toyohara Kunichika's interpretation of the theme of 'twenty-four hours' as represented in his set 'The scenes of the twenty-four hours parodied' (Mitate chûya nijûyoji no uchi), 1890.