Dejima yujo de-Kawari no zu (Deshima Prostitute with Fan) is a woodblock print by an anonymous artist in Nagasaki, Japan c. 1800. The print was purchased from C.R. Boxer in 1951, collected by J.C. Pabst and is currently held in the British Museum collection in London. Deshima Prostitute with Fan is a good example of Nagasaki-e prints, which are recognizable through their depictions of Dutch people, ships and exotic animals. A derivative of the popular Ukiyo-e print genre, Nagasaki-e prints were mainly created as souvenirs for the Japanese middle class.
Background
The Edo Period (1769 - 1868) saw the end of ancient feudal wars and a country united under the Tokagawa Shogunate who moved the new capital to Edo (Tokyo). On July 24, 1641, during a period of self-imposed Japanese seclusion (approximately 1639-1854), the Dutch settlement was moved to Deshima. Deshima was a small artificial island whose northern shore was linked to the town of Nagasaki by a stone bridge. The first and fifth of the ‘Regulations concerning Dejima-machi’ which were posted at the small stone bridge connecting the island with the shore read:
It is forbidden:
1. For women to enter with the exception of whores (keisei no …show more content…
The prime time of these prints was from 1800 to 1860. Nagasaki-e were made for and bought by Japanese who had hardly ever a chance to see one of the red-haired, foreign 'barbarians' in their lifetime. Richard Illing in his book The Art of Japanese Prints suggests that the Nagasaki-e industry, which flourished from 1800 to 1860, was something of a sideline for the artists the Japanese government employed in Nagasaki to copy western images brought to Japan by foreigners. As the prints were unsigned, he makes the assumption that they were produced locally as quality souvenirs rather than as high
Background
The Edo Period (1769 - 1868) saw the end of ancient feudal wars and a country united under the Tokagawa Shogunate who moved the new capital to Edo (Tokyo). On July 24, 1641, during a period of self-imposed Japanese seclusion (approximately 1639-1854), the Dutch settlement was moved to Deshima. Deshima was a small artificial island whose northern shore was linked to the town of Nagasaki by a stone bridge. The first and fifth of the ‘Regulations concerning Dejima-machi’ which were posted at the small stone bridge connecting the island with the shore read:
It is forbidden:
1. For women to enter with the exception of whores (keisei no …show more content…
The prime time of these prints was from 1800 to 1860. Nagasaki-e were made for and bought by Japanese who had hardly ever a chance to see one of the red-haired, foreign 'barbarians' in their lifetime. Richard Illing in his book The Art of Japanese Prints suggests that the Nagasaki-e industry, which flourished from 1800 to 1860, was something of a sideline for the artists the Japanese government employed in Nagasaki to copy western images brought to Japan by foreigners. As the prints were unsigned, he makes the assumption that they were produced locally as quality souvenirs rather than as high