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The English 'brothel' comes from the French <i>bordel</i> or 'place of prostitution'.<br/><br/> Joachim Beuckelaer was born in Antwerp and possibly learned to paint in the workshop of his uncle, Pieter Aertsen, who had married his aunt. Aertsen was best known for his market and kitchen scenes, genres which Beuckelaer continued to paint when he established himself as an independent master in 1560.
The Tankas (pinyin: Danjia) or boat people are an ethnic subgroup in Southern China who have traditionally lived on junks in coastal parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan, and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. Historically, the Tankas were considered to be outcasts. Since they were boat people who lived by the sea, they were sometimes referred to as 'sea gypsies' by the Chinese and British.<br/><br/> The Tanka also formed a class of prostitutes in Canton operating the boats in Canton's Pearl River which functioned as brothels, they did not practice foot binding and their dialect was unique. They were forbidden to marry Chinese or live on land. Their ancestors were the natives of Southern China before the Chinese expelled them to their current home on the water.
The Tankas (pinyin: Danjia) or boat people are an ethnic subgroup in Southern China who have traditionally lived on junks in coastal parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan, and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. Historically, the Tankas were considered to be outcasts. Since they were boat people who lived by the sea, they were sometimes referred to as 'sea gypsies' by the Chinese and British.<br/><br/> The Tanka also formed a class of prostitutes in Canton operating the boats in Canton's Pearl River which functioned as brothels, they did not practice foot binding and their dialect was unique. They were forbidden to marry Chinese or live on land. Their ancestors were the natives of Southern China before the Chinese expelled them to their current home on the water.
Dozo Sagami was a celebrated brothel in Shinagawa-shuku by the bank of the Meguro River.<br/><br/> Kitagawa Utamaro (ca. 1753 - October 31, 1806) was a Japanese printmaker and painter, who is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e). He is known especially for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as <i>bijinga</i>. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects.
The Nectarine brothel in Yokohama was a famous house of prostitution also known as No.9 or Jimpuro. Until the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Jimpuro was one of the top brothels of the city. It was originally opened in 1872 in Yokohama’s Takashima-cho.<br/><br/> In 1882, Jimpuro moved to the less visible area of Eiraku-cho. A branch specifically for foreigners was opened at the red-light district of Kanagawa’s Nanaken-machi. The brothel was called No. 9, because this was Jimpuro’s original address in Takashima-cho.
The Nectarine brothel in Yokohama was a famous house of prostitution also known as No.9 or Jimpuro. Until the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Jimpuro was one of the top brothels of the city. It was originally opened in 1872 in Yokohama’s Takashima-cho.<br/><br/> In 1882, Jimpuro moved to the less visible area of Eiraku-cho. A branch specifically for foreigners was opened at the red-light district of Kanagawa’s Nanaken-machi. The brothel was called No. 9, because this was Jimpuro’s original address in Takashima-cho.
The English 'brothel' comes from the French bordel or 'place of prostitution'.<br/><br/> Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c. 1500 – c. 1566) was a leading artist of the second generation of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, belonging to the group of Italianizing Flemish painters called the Romanists, who were influenced by Italian Renaissance painting. Unlike some of these Hemessen had visited Italy at least once, and also Fontainebleau, where there was at the time a colony of Italian artists, the First School of Fontainebleau, working on the palace there.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as analternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
Shin Yun-bok, better known by his pen name Hyewon, (born 1758) was a Korean painter of the Joseon Dynasty. Like his contemporaries Danwon and Geungjae, he is known for his realistic depictions of daily life in his time. His genre paintings are distinctly more erotic than Danwon's, a fact which contributed to his expulsion from the royal painting institute, Dohwaseo.<br/><br/> Painting was frequently a hereditary occupation in the Joseon period, and Hyewon's father and grandfather had both been court painters. Together with Danwon and the later painter Owon, Hyewon is remembered today as one of the ‘Three Wons’ of Joseon-period painting. Shin Yun-bok, despite being greatly influenced and overshadowed by Kim Hong-do during his career, developed his own unique technique and artistry. Whereas Kim depicted everyday life of peasants with a humorous touch, Shin showed glimpses of eroticism in his paintings of townspeople and gisaeng (courtesan).<br/><br/> His choice of characters, composition, and painting method differed from Kim's, with use of bright colors and delicate paint strokes. He also painted scenes of shamanism and townlife, offering insight to lifestyle and costumes of the late Joseon era.
The Nectarine brothel in Yokohama was a famous house of prostitution also known as No.9 or Jimpuro. Until the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Jimpuro was one of the top brothels of the city. It was originally opened in 1872 in Yokohama’s Takashima-cho.<br/><br/> In 1882, Jimpuro moved to the less visible area of Eiraku-cho. A branch specifically for foreigners was opened at the red-light district of Kanagawa’s Nanaken-machi. The brothel was called No. 9, because this was Jimpuro’s original address in Takashima-cho.
The Allied occupation of Japan at the end of World War II was led by General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, with support from the British Commonwealth. Unlike in the occupation of Germany, the Soviet Union was allowed little to no influence over Japan.<br/><br/> This foreign presence marked the only time in Japan's history that it had been occupied by a foreign power. It transformed the country into a parliamentary democracy that recalled American 'New Deal' priorities of the 1930s politics by Roosevelt.<br/><br/> The occupation, codenamed Operation Blacklist, was ended by the San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed on September 8, 1951 and effective from April 28, 1952, after which Japan's independence – with the exception, until 1972, of the Ryukyu Islands – was restored.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as analternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Post-Impressionist painter. He was a Dutch artist whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art. His output includes portraits, self portraits, landscapes and still lifes of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.<br/><br/> He drew as a child but did not paint until his late twenties; he completed many of his best-known works during the last two years of his life. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints.<br/><br/> This painting is currently with The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as an alternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as analternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as analternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
Yoshiwara was a famous Akasen district (red-light district) in Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan.<br/><br/> The courtesans would consist of yujo (women of pleasure/prostitutes), kamuro (young female students), shinzo (senior female students), hashi-joro (lower-ranking courtesans), koshi-joro (high-ranking courtesans), tayu (higher-ranking courtesans), oiran (highest ranking courtesans).<br/><br/> The unfortunate women in caged brothels represented the lowest rank of prostitute in Yoshiwara and other red light areas.
During the colonial era, just south of Yan’an Donglu (then called Edward VII Avenue) ran the Rue du Consulat – today’s Jinling Donglu – leading from the waterfront to the French Concession. Somewhere off this road was a small lane called Rue Chu Pao San, renamed Xikou Lu after 1949, but since, apparently, swept away in the tide of redevelopment.<br/><br/> In its heyday Rue Chu Pao San rejoiced in the European nickname ‘Blood Alley’ – a lane of teeming vice, brothels and low bars frequented by sailors on shore leave from the Huangpu docks. Ralph Shaw, a Briton who lived in Shanghai during the 1930s, records that Blood Alley fairly swarmed with ‘a legion of Chinese, Korean, Annamite, White Russian, Filipino and Formosan women’, in search of a similar legion of ‘kilted Seaforth Highlanders, tall U.S. Navy men, seamen from the Liverpool tramps, and French Grenadiers’, who ‘had ears only for the girls clinging to them in the half light of dance-floor alcoves’.<br/><br/> Blood Alley, as the name suggests, was a rough and violent place ‘entirely dedicated to wine, women, song and all-night lechery’.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as an alternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as analternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
Hishikawa Moronobu (è±å· 師宣, 1618 – July 25, 1694) was a Japanese painter and printmaker known for his advancement of the ukiyo-e woodcut style starting in the 1670s.<br/><br/> Moronobu was the son of a well-respected dyer and a gold and silver-thread brocade artisan in the village of Hodamura, Awa Province, near Edo Bay in present-day Kyonan, Chiba Prefecture. After moving to Edo, Moronobu, who had learned his father's craft, studied both Tosa and KanÅ-style painting. He thus had a solid grounding in both decorative crafts and academic painting, which served him well when he then turned to ukiyo-e.
On May 27, 1949, Shanghai came under Communist control. Despite Communist claims that the city was taken over in a peaceful manner, one of the first actions taken by the Communist Party was to clean up the portion of the population that were considered counter-revolutionaries, including bar girls and prostitutes.<br/><br/> Most foreign firms moved their offices from Shanghai to Hong Kong, specifically North Point, whose Eastern District became known as 'Little Shanghai.
During the colonial era, just south of Yan’an Donglu (then called Edward VII Avenue) ran the Rue du Consulat – today’s Jinling Donglu – leading from the waterfront to the French Concession. Somewhere off this road was a small lane called Rue Chu Pao San, renamed Xikou Lu after 1949, but since, apparently, swept away in the tide of redevelopment.<br/><br/> In its heyday Rue Chu Pao San rejoiced in the European nickname ‘Blood Alley’ – a lane of teeming vice, brothels and low bars frequented by sailors on shore leave from the Huangpu docks. Ralph Shaw, a Briton who lived in Shanghai during the 1930s, records that Blood Alley fairly swarmed with ‘a legion of Chinese, Korean, Annamite, White Russian, Filipino and Formosan women’, in search of a similar legion of ‘kilted Seaforth Highlanders, tall U.S. Navy men, seamen from the Liverpool tramps, and French Grenadiers’, who ‘had ears only for the girls clinging to them in the half light of dance-floor alcoves’.<br/><br/> Blood Alley, as the name suggests, was a rough and violent place ‘entirely dedicated to wine, women, song and all-night lechery’.
Fuzhou Road and the surrounding side streets and alleys emerged as the main centre of street prostitution in Shanghai during the 1890s, and by the 1920s was notorious as the city's largest 'red light' area (although traditionally Chinese indicated such areas not with red lights, but with green lanterns.<br/><br/> Much of the prostitution was controlled by criminal organisations such as the infamous 'Green Gang' run by Du Yuesheng and his henchmen.
After the defeat of Imperial Japan in 1945, the Japanese authorities feared that US occupation forces might exploit Japanese women in the same way that the Japanese army had raped and brutalized women throughout East Asia during the war years. Accordingly, a ‘Recreation and Amusement Association’ was set up to ‘construct a dike to hold back the mad frenzy of the occupation troops and cultivate and preserve the purity of our race long into the future…’. By 1946 it was clear that the American forces were not about to go on raping sprees, and also that Japanese prostitutes, operating independently and often dressed as ‘geisha’ to appeal to the GIs, were doing brisk business. Faced with this reality, the Recreation and Amusement Association was shut down in 1946.
At the beginning of the 20th century Malay Street, together with contiguous Hylam and Bencoolen Streets, was notorious for its Japanese karayuki-san brothels. The area was known to its Japanese residents as Suteretsu or 'street'. The Japanese prostitution industry began to wind down after World War I under pressure from the Japanese authorities. The area comprised many dilapidated two storey shop houses, the last of which were demolished in the early 1980s. Today the old street is incorporated within Bugis Junction, a pedestrian shopping mall made up of three streets - Malabar Street, Malay Street and Hylam Street. The streets are the first in Singapore to be air-conditioned and are thus commonly refered to as 'indoor streets'.
Hailam Street (Hainan Street) was named for its majority Hainanese Chinese population, but at the beginning of the 20th century it was also notorious for its Japanese karayuki-san brothels. The area was known to its Japanese residents as Chuo Dori or 'central street'. The Japanese prostitution industry began to wind down after World War I under pressure from the Japanese authorities. The area comprised many dilapidated two storey shop houses, the last of which were demolished in the early 1980s. Today the old street is incorporated within Bugis Junction, a pedestrian shopping mall made up of three streets - Malabar Street, Malay Street and Hylam Street. The streets are the first in Singapore to be air-conditioned and are thus commonly refered to as 'indoor streets'.
Karayuki-san ('Miss Gone-overseas') were Japanese women who travelled to East Asia and Southeast Asia in the second half of the 19th century to work as prostitutes. Many of these women are said to have originated from the Amakusa Islands of Kumamoto Prefecture, which had a large and long-stigmatized Japanese Christian community. Many of the women who went overseas to work as karayuki-san were the daughters of poor agricultural or fishing families.<br/><br/> The end of the Meiji period was the golden age for karayuki-san, and the girls that would go on these overseas voyages were known fondly as the joshigun or 'army of girls'. As Japan developed, the presence of karayuki-san overseas was considered shameful. During the 1910s and 1920s, Japanese officials overseas worked hard to eliminate Japanese brothels and maintain Japanese prestige.
Karayuki-san ('Miss Gone-overseas') were Japanese women who travelled to East Asia and Southeast Asia in the second half of the 19th century to work as prostitutes. Many of these women are said to have originated from the Amakusa Islands of Kumamoto Prefecture, which had a large and long-stigmatized Japanese Christian community. Many of the women who went overseas to work as karayuki-san were the daughters of poor agricultural or fishing families.<br/><br/> The end of the Meiji period was the golden age for karayuki-san, and the girls that would go on these overseas voyages were known fondly as the joshigun or 'army of girls'. As Japan developed, the presence of karayuki-san overseas was considered shameful. During the 1910s and 1920s, Japanese officials overseas worked hard to eliminate Japanese brothels and maintain Japanese prestige.
San Francisco's Chinatown was the port of entry for early Hoisanese and Zhongshanese Chinese immigrants from the Guangdong province of southern China from the 1850s to the 1900s. The area was the one geographical region deeded by the city government and private property owners which allowed Chinese persons to inherit and inhabit dwellings within the city.<br/><br/> The majority of these Chinese shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and hired workers in San Francisco Chinatown were predominantly Hoisanese and male. Many Chinese found jobs working for large companies seeking a source of labor, most famously as part of the Central Pacific on the Transcontinental Railroad. Other early immigrants worked as mine workers or independent prospectors hoping to strike it rich during the 1849 Gold Rush.
Yoshiwara (å‰åŽŸ) was a famous Akasen district (red-light district) in Edo, present-day TÅkyÅ, Japan.<br/><br/> In the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka. To counter this, an order of Tokugawa Hidetada of the Tokugawa shogunate restricted prostitution to designated city districts. These districts were Shimabara for KyÅto (1640), Shinmachi for ÅŒsaka (1624–1644) and Yoshiwara for Edo (1617). The main reason for establishing these nightless cities was the Tokugawa shogunate's trying to prevent the nouveau riche chÅnin (townsmen) from political intrigue.<br/><br/> People involved in mizu shÅbai (水商売?) 'water trade' would include hÅkan (comedians), kabuki (popular theatre of the time), dancers, dandies, rakes, tea-shop girls, KanÅ (painters of the official school of painting), courtesans who resided in seirÅ (green houses) and geisha in their okiya houses.<br/><br/> The courtesans would consist of yÅ«jo (women of pleasure/prostitutes), kamuro (young female students), shinzÅ (senior female students), hashi-jÅro (lower-ranking courtesans), kÅshi-jÅro (high-ranking courtesans just below tayÅ«), tayÅ« (high-ranking courtesans), oiran ('castle-topplers', named that way for how quickly they could part a daimyÅ (lord) from his money), yarite (older chaperones for an oiran), and the yobidashi who replaced the tayÅ« when they were priced out of the market.<br/><br/> In addition to courtesans, there were also geisha/geiko, maiko (apprentice geishas), otoko geisha (male geishas), danna (patrons of a geisha), and okasan (geisha teahouse managers). The lines between geisha and courtesans were sharply drawn, however - a geisha was never to be sexually involved with a customer, though there were exceptions.
San Francisco's Chinatown was the port of entry for early Hoisanese and Zhongshanese Chinese immigrants from the Guangdong province of southern China from the 1850s to the 1900s. The area was the one geographical region deeded by the city government and private property owners which allowed Chinese persons to inherit and inhabit dwellings within the city.<br/><br/> The majority of these Chinese shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and hired workers in San Francisco Chinatown were predominantly Hoisanese and male. Many Chinese found jobs working for large companies seeking a source of labor, most famously as part of the Central Pacific on the Transcontinental Railroad. Other early immigrants worked as mine workers or independent prospectors hoping to strike it rich during the 1849 Gold Rush.
Fuzhou Road and the surrounding side streets and alleys emerged as the main centre of street prostitution in Shanghai during the 1890s, and by the 1920s was notorious as the city's largest 'red light' area (although traditionally Chinese indicated such areas not with red lights, but with green lanterns.<br/><br/> Much of the prostitution was controlled by criminal organisations such as the infamous 'Green Gang' run by Du Yuesheng and his henchmen.
Illustration by the Austrian artist Friedrich Schiff, who lived in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s. His images exemplify the 'anything goes' atmosphere and indulgence amidst poverty that characterised Old Shanghai and which would soon be brought to an abrupt end by Japanese invasion (1937) and Communist revolution (1949).
Illustration by the Austrian artist Friedrich Schiff, who lived in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s. His images exemplify the 'anything goes' atmosphere and indulgence amidst poverty that characterised Old Shanghai and which would soon be brought to an abrupt end by Japanese invasion (1937) and Communist revolution (1949).
Yoshiwara was a famous Akasen district (red-light district) in Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan.<br/><br/> The courtesans would consist of yujo (women of pleasure/prostitutes), kamuro (young female students), shinzo (senior female students), hashi-joro (lower-ranking courtesans), koshi-joro (high-ranking courtesans), tayu (higher-ranking courtesans), oiran (highest ranking courtesans).<br/><br/> The unfortunate women in caged brothels represented the lowest rank of prostitute in Yoshiwara and other red light areas.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as analternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
T. Enami (Enami Nobukuni, 1859 – 1929) was the trade name of a celebrated Meiji period photographer. The T. of his trade name is thought to have stood for Toshi, though he never spelled it out on any personal or business document.<br/><br/> Born in Edo (now Tokyo) during the Bakumatsu era, Enami was first a student of, and then an assistant to the well known photographer and collotypist, Ogawa Kazumasa. Enami relocated to Yokohama, and opened a studio on Benten-dÅri (Benten Street) in 1892. Just a few doors away from him was the studio of the already well known Tamamura KozaburÅ. He and Enami would work together on at least three related projects over the years.<br/><br/> Enami became quietly unique as the only photographer of that period known to work in all popular formats, including the production of large-format photographs compiled into what are commonly called "Yokohama Albums". Enami went on to become Japan's most prolific photographer of small-format images such as the stereoview and glass lantern-slides. The best of these were delicately hand-tinted.
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. Japanese novelists started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts.<br/><br/> 'Shashin Mitate Cho' (essentially, prostitute menus or catalogues) were introduced soon after photography became popular in the late 19th century, at least in more upmarket brothels, as analternative to the 'caged prostitute' displays of lower class brothels where women were displayed for the consideration of customers.
Oiran (花é­) were the courtesans of Edo period Japan. The oiran were considered a type of yÅ«jo (éŠå¥³) 'woman of pleasure' or prostitute. However, they were distinguished from the yÅ«jo in that they were entertainers, and many became celebrities of their times outside the pleasure districts. Their art and fashions often set trends among the wealthy and, because of this, cultural aspects of oiran traditions continue to be preserved to this day.<br/><br/> The oiran arose in the Edo period (1600–1868). At this time, laws were passed restricting brothels to walled districts set some distance from the city center. In the major cities these were the Shimabara in Kyoto, the Shinmachi in Osaka, and the Yoshiwara in Edo (present-day Tokyo).<br/><br/> These rapidly grew into large, self-contained 'pleasure quarters' offering all manner of entertainments. Within, a courtesan’s birth rank held no distinction, which was fortunate considering many of the courtesans originated as the daughters of impoverished families who were sold into this lifestyle as indentured servants. Instead, they were categorized based on their beauty, character, education, and artistic ability.<br/><br/> Among the oiran, the tayÅ« (太夫) was considered the highest rank of courtesan and were considered suitable for the daimyo or feudal lords. In the mid-1700s courtesan rankings began to disappear and courtesans of all classes were collectively known simply as 'oiran'.<br/><br/> The word oiran comes from the Japanese phrase oira no tokoro no nÄ“san (ãŠã„らã®æ‰€ã®å§‰ã•) which translates as 'my elder sister'. When written in Japanese, it consists of two kanji, 花 meaning 'flower', and é­ sansmeaning 'leader' or 'first', hence 'Leading Flower' or 'First Flower'.
Ishikawa Toyonobu (çŸ³å· è±Šä¿¡, 1711 - July 1, 1785) was a Japanese ukiyo-e print artist. He is sometimes said to have been the same person as Nishimura Shigenobu, a contemporary ukiyo-e artist and student of Nishimura Shigenaga about whom very little is known.<br/><br/> A pupil of Nishimura Shigenaga, Toyonobu produced many monochrome 'lacquer prints' (urushi-e) which reflected the influence of Okumura Masanobu as well. Many of these were yakusha-e (actor prints) and bijinga (images of beautiful women), including images of standing courtesans, whose faces conveyed an impassivity typical of the works of the KaigetsudÅ school.<br/><br/> Later in his career, Toyonobu became one of the leading producers of color prints, chiefly benizuri-e ('rose prints'), but stopped producing ukiyo-e shortly after Suzuki Harunobu pioneered the full-color print (nishiki-e) in 1765.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839 – June 9, 1892), also named Taiso Yoshitoshi, was a Japanese artist. He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of feudal Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration.<br/><br/> Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many outstanding aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.