Kisokaidô: Fukaya - Station 09

Eisen was one of the best known beauty painters of his generation and he displays his skills in this depiction of the pleasure quarters of Fukaya at night. There were no women available for entertainment at Kumagaya, the previous station and both geishas and prostitutes congregated in Fukaya. On a stretch just over a mile long (2km), there were over 80 inns and brothels. On the left, three geishas (1) out on a visit accompanied by a servant carrying a lantern with the sign “take” (竹) (2) (for Takanouchi, the publisher) turn to greet another geisha. They wear high geta (elevated wooden shoes) and kimonos in dark shades of blue and green, suggesting their appearance in the dark. Behind the geishas are the bars of the display window of a brothel also named Takeuchi (竹うち)(3). Within are four prostitutes, one of them (4) looking wistfully onto the scene. At the main entrance, the madame (5) greets a customer who bends to take off his shoes. To the right, seen as silhouette, a blind masseur (6) blows a whistle to attract trade. Other figures, one carrying a lit lantern can be made out of the gloom in front of a row of shops and stone warehouses.

This print has seen many changes as the printers tried to reproduce the night scene. The earliest impressions such as this example, have uniformly dark colours and black patterning on the kimonos of the geishas. These impressions bear the gourd-shaped seal in the margin (7) and are fully signed. In later impressions, a shaft of light emanates from the paper lantern carried by the maid with the remainder of the print rendered as though it were in the dark with only the faces , hands and legs of the figures seen as white. The figures in silhouette also change with the addition of a seated dog and the lantern in the center extinguished. The houses lose their black outlines. The gourd-shaped seal is replaced by a kiwame (approved) censor’s seal and the Takenouchi seal is lost. Then the houses in the back are printed black with no windows or fences as if in a dark mist. The shades on the kimonos become medium blue, Eisen's signature and the Hoeido seal disappear.

(Source: The 69 stations of the Kisokaido, Sebastian Izzard, Brazillier 2008)