Cat By a Window

Japanese print of a cat looking out the window at Asakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival by Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando) (Japanese, 1797-1858). No. 101 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 11th month of 1857. This image offers a view from the second story of a Yoshiwara brothel over the Asakusa Ricefields, toward a dense procession of visitors to the Torinomachi Festival, held at Washi Daimyojin Shrine. This scene shows the room of a courtesan who has just had an afternoon customer. He probably brought her as a gift the set of “kumade” hairpins, one of which has been pulled out and admired. On the window sill is a mouth-rinsing bowl and a used towel; to the left is the border of a folding screen decorated with a bird motif, and just above the hairpins is a parcel of tissue papers delicately known as onkotogami, or “paper for the honorable act.” In the foreground is an exquisitely detailed cat.