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Asa no e: Ukiyoe
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Gallery:
See also: Old prints about hemp farming
See also: Kiseru pipes
See also: The floating world
See also: Miasa village (Nagano prefecture)
See also: Hemp in Gunma prefecture
See also: Hemp in Tochigi prefecture
See also: Hemp and sumo
See also: Asa no ha
See also: Other hemp images

See also:
See also: The "Hemp in Japan" Library

The floating world

'Lovers' by Chôki (ca. 1800)

In Middle Eastern countries hemp preparations are smoked or eaten as an aphrodisiac. We don't know for sure however what this young couple had in their pipes. Whatever it was, it wasn't against the law then.

  'Lovers' by Chôki (ca. 1800)
One of the best-known of Utamaro's portraits of beauties. The courtesan Hanaôgi from the Ôgiya (an establishment in the licensed quarters of Edo) was extremely popular in her day as a person of great cultivation and artistic accomplishment. Here we see her as a private woman in her own right, pipe in hand, spending a relaxing moment between clients.
  'The courtesan Hanaôgi of the Ôgiya house' by Utamaro (ca. 1790)
One of Utamaro's "Portraits of Beauties" in which the face and upper body of the subject are made to fill the whole frame, a characteristic of this master portrayer of beauty. This picture presents an everyday scene of a woman looking downwards as she cleans her pipe with a twist of paper, conveying an air of languid tedium.
  Cleaning her pipe
'Mistress in Mosquito net' by Yoshitoshi (1826-1902). Mosquito nets made from silk or hemp are an old and effective way of keeping out mosquitos which plague people especially during the hot and humid Japanese summer. They have been in use since medieval times and are still used by some people up to this day.
  Mistress in Mosquito-net
This lacquerware comb once belonged to a female member of the household of a wealthy merchant during the Edo era (National Museum, Tokyo)
  Comb with hemp leaves


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