Dance scene 遊女画 | Ukiyo e painting 浮世絵 | 17th century (Hikone screen style)

Paintings in the style of the " Hikone folding screen " (see image quote) are very rare in the art market. This picture had to be extensively restored and completely remounted. The linearly decorative yet colorfully expressive style of this type of painting stands out from the art landscape of the 16th/17th centuries. The painter of the "Hikone folding screen" is just as unknown as the painter of this picture – no seal, no signature. This also means that with this art we are not moving in the spheres of the great schools of Kanō and Tosa, but that we are dealing with the interior design of teahouses and pleasure establishments, where the attractive, often eroticized subject matter counts more than a famous artist's name. The male guest in this new genre picture is completely fascinated by the dancer, whose dress is provocatively red and who reveals a lot of cleavage.

The placement of the three figures is sophisticated. The guest, dressed in starkly contrasting black, formally merges completely with the red-clad shoulder drum player. He is virtually unable to escape her presence and is therefore (probably painfully) significantly removed from the dancer.

This scene is therefore “sizzling” and is representative of a then newly emerging entertainment culture, which promoted the strict police regime of the shoguns in clearly defined entertainment districts in order to distract young men from politically dangerous activities with eros, art and sake.