Woodblock triptych, each sheet signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi giga (playfully drawn by Kuniyoshi) within a gourd-shaped cartouche reading Yoshi, published by Kitaya Magobei and Kawaguchiya Shobei, 1846
Oban triptych (35.9 x 74.6 cm. overall)

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Lot Essay

A rare print of a brothel scene with sparrows. Released in 1846; a time when images of prostitutes and geisha were prohibited, this print demonstrates the canny and amusing methods employed by artists to circumvent the ban. A throng of visitors to the pleasure quarters peer at the women seated inside a brothel. There is much coming-and-going and the palanquin carrier has an elaborate tattoo to his torso (depictions of tattoos were also banned during this period).

View the same triptych in the collections of The British Museum here.