A fantasy city where hedonism, transgression and sin, if you'll pardon the quaint term, were permitted, even encouraged; a world apart where men left the onerous social constraints of daily life behind, shed their identities, and entered a realm of the senses.
The same thing could have been said of San Francisco in its more freewheeling days, but the description actually applies to Edo (now Tokyo), a center for Kabuki theatres, brothels and other singular entertainments that flourished in the notorious pleasure quarter known as the Yoshiwara in 17th-century Japan.
The Asian Art Museum is now offering up an enticement of its own with "Seduction: Japan's Floating World," an enthralling new show that casts a spell and captures the aura of a place and time. As is so often the case, this museum and its curatorial team bring an arcane period and subject matter largely unfamiliar to Westerners to intriguing, vibrant life.
A robe with willow tree and Chinese characters was worn by one of the courtesans in Yoshiwara, and is included in the exhibit Seduction: Japan's Floating World. Photo: Rick Gerharter
The "floating world" was an urban legend, an early pre-movie-industry dream factory synonymous with glamour, high style and fashion. This sensual destination gave rise to apocryphal stories and visual depictions of a glittering material culture; decorative objects, elaborate theatre costumes, fine art paintings created with costly, jewel-like pigments, as well as less expensive, more accessible wood block prints, disseminated the romantic myth of Edo and enticed customers to journey there. ("Printer's Eye: Ukiyo-E from the Grabhorn Collection," an adjunct exhibition of prints from the era, is displayed concurrently.)
The stellar artworks on view mythologize an Oz of the senses. The idealized images of courtesans, who were the trend-setting fashion icons of their day, flashy male Kabuki performers who played both genders on stage, and other celebrated stars of the demi-monde, were instrumental in luring wealthy patrons - and their deep pockets - to an arousal zone of forbidden pleasure, free from the oppressive dictates of Japanese society.
The escapist illusion wouldn't have been complete without the luxurious layered robes made of sumptuous, beautifully designed fabrics like a brilliant sleeveless jacket (1850-1900) comprised of over 33 swatches of silk, satin, laminated paper, velvet and gold threads sewn together in a geometric pattern. Cut into wide, boxy shapes, the fabrics themselves were the fashion statement: Sometimes translucent, tie-dyed or painted with marine elements or exquisite flower motifs, they served as canvases for artists, and added to the allure of the courtesans who wore them, shimmering as they moved.
But the show's marquee attraction is "A Visit to the Yoshiwara," a pristine, 58-foot-long, meticulously detailed, vividly colored, hand-painted scroll handsomely laid out in a glass display case. It's essentially a virtual tour of the pleasure quarter and its denizens that starts on the outskirts of the walled and gated compound, which had but a single entrance. The narrative experience, akin to being on a movie set, allows one to peer into open rooms of private pleasure in houses of assignation decorated with refined Chinese furnishings, though the sexuality is more implicit than explicit. Wealthy aristocrats spent the modern equivalent of $13,000 a night to visit with high-ranking, erudite prostitutes, schooled in literary arts, flower-arranging, music, the art of conversation and other cultivated pursuits. Patrons, who often provided the pricey ensembles for their consorts, were required to undergo an extensive screening process before they were allowed to meet with a courtesan.
Warlords and their entourages of thousands of men descended on the city, coming by boat, on horseback or on foot. The scroll includes inscriptions identifying figures such as entertainers, merchants and the occasional Samurai who weren't allowed inside, and had to wear disguises concealing their identities if they wished to enter. A touch screen allows visitors to zero in on individual areas and take advantage of additional explanation of the imagery. It's a pretty fantastic meld of old-world art and 21st-century technology.
The show is divided into a variety of sub-sections such as Fashion, Disguise and Intimacy. In the latter is Katsukawa Shunsho's beguiling "Peony" (1775-80). Once one of a dozen panels that comprised the erotic hand scroll "Secret Games in the Spring Palace," it shows a young beautiful couple locked in a sweet spooning embrace, a gently sensual scene accented by a single blossom in a nearby vase, and framed by an embroidered border. "Evening Rain in the Yoshiwara" (1830-44) is an inviting, almost cozy scene of two courtesans in their bare feet awaiting customers on a sultry night. A hanging lantern sways in the breeze; the interior of the brothel is lit by warm light, beckoning guests to come in from the darkness outside.
By contrast, "Hell Courtesan" (ca. 1870-1900), based on the legend of a 15th-century prostitute kidnapped and sold to a brothel, inadvertently hints at the seamy underbelly of the sex industry, and challenges the fantasy promulgated by those who profited from it. To atone for her sins, purge her shame and help her ascend to paradise, so the story goes, she wore a flowing robe like the one that ensconces the statuesque figure, caught between heaven and hell, depicted in Utagawa Kuniyoshi's hanging scroll painting. The garment is embroidered with multiple references, including the king of hell sitting in judgment of the dead, macabre narrative iconography that's further elucidated by the helpful exhibition text.?
It shouldn't be forgotten that the opulent clothing, glamorous accouterments and aesthetic beauty which surrounded the "floating world," and the romanticized portrayals that promoted it, were a deceptive veneer that belied the harsh circumstances of the women who worked there. Many were from rural communities, taken from the countryside and sold by their families into prostitution at the age of seven or eight, and trained to please clients. Yes, it might have been preferable to poverty and starvation, but who knows what they endured, or how they coped with the powerlessness to change their fate?
Through May 10