Main Street of the Yoshiwara on a Starlight Night

A night view down a narrow street lined with wooden buildings whose latticed upper windows recede toward a starry sky. A lantern on a pole glows at the center, and a lone figure in a robe walks at right beside stacked crates and benches. The woodblock print uses restrained grays and black with soft color accents.

Look closer: A small red seal mark sits near the lower left edge of the print.

Artist

Utagawa Kunisada II

Date

1852–64

Medium

Woodblock print (surimono); ink and color on paper

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2932 × 3291 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936