The ancient Tokyo of geishas and actors, esthetes and hedonists, the city of 'green houses' depicted in Utamaro's drawings and described in the words of Jippensha. A journey into a timeless world where night never falls.
Between the 17th and 20th centuries, in the Edo (now known as Tokyo) of a fluctuating world, truly a city within a city, with its characters and rules of behaviour: refined and ruthless at the same time, this was the famous district of Yoshiwara, the city where night never fell. These two small volumes entitled Seiro nenju gyoji (Annals of the Green Houses) were published in 1804 with extraordinarily fine illustrations by Utamaro, the most highly-acclaimed portrayer of feminine beauty in the whole of Asian Art, with a text written by the great 19th-century Japanese novelist Jippensha. Verses and images form a delightful manual presenting the life of the courtesans of Edo, ancient Tokyo, from the first years of their lives to the zenith of success. A unique guide for anyone aspiring to become a tsujin, a refined esthete and hedonist of the city where night never falls. A close-up view of the proto-modern society of what was already, and had been for more than a century, the largest metropolis in the world.