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Utagawa YOSHITORA   (fl. c. 1850 - 1880)		American drinking and carousing - Amerikajin yuko sakamori -
		Signed:                     Yoshitora ga Date:                         1861 Publisher:                 Enshu-ya Hikobei Size:                           oban tate-e (c. 35 x 24 cms / c. 13.8" x 9.5") Condition: Very good impression and color; signs from an earlier album mount at the back only, else very good condition. ref. no.:  # 712794 - Sold -

"A bearded American holds a stemmed glass while his companion, a Japanese courtesan, holds a large bottle. Hundreds of courtesans lived in MIYOZAKI, the entertainment district of Yokohama; few other women lived in the port city in the first year after its opening to international trade. Drinking was a major pastime for the foreign merchants and sailors there, whether at private parties such as those in the GANKIRO in Miyozaki, or in the 'grog shops', which numbered twenty-four in 1865. Public drunkenness was not uncommon among the men of many nationalities who came to Yokohama, and their drinking was frequently portrayed in Yokohama prints." (A. Yonemura, op.cit.) Reference: Ann Yonemura, Yokohama - Prints from the Nineteenth-century Japan; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1990; col. ill. no. #56, p. 145.

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