Author Description

"Drama and Desire presents sixty-nine masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting by such renowned artists as Hokusai, Utamaro, Harunobo, and others, all depicting aspects of the so-called "floating world"--The licentious demi monde of Edo (modern-day Tokyo) where actors and courtesans, rich patrons and bohemians cavorted. While woodblock prints of the floating world have long been a favorite of art lovers, far less known and much less available have been the remarkable paintings of the period, rendered by some of Japan's most renowned artists with a rare freedom of expression. In Drama and Desire, wistful interiors of courtesans at rest and onstage panoramas of actors in their finery jostle with explicitly erotic scenes of lovemaking and outrageous fantasies. Essays by American and Japanese scholars, including Howard Hibbett and Kobayashi Tadashi, set the context with discussions of Udo society and culture, the ways in which "high" and "low" arts mixed in ukiyo-e painting, and the prominent roles played by courtesans, geishas, and male prostitutes in the subculture of the "floating world.""--Jacket.