Scenes from the Pleasure Quarters

This handscroll shows a number of scenes from the Yoshiwara, the designated red-light district in the capital Edo (now Tokyo). As the scroll is unrolled from right to left, the viewer gains an increasingly internal perspective on the rarefied world of the Yoshiwara’s brothels, from the initial boat ride toward to the district, to views of lower-class brothels, and finally to the interior spaces of an elite brothel in the final scene. Ōoka Michinobu was a disciple of the ukiyo-e painter Ōoka Shunboku (1680–1763) active primarily in the city of Ōsaka.