New Yoshiwara

A night scene carried by an enormous glowing halo around the moon. Kuniyoshi has put Western-style cast shadows under the figures and the palanquin, which was not standard practice and gives the whole thing an odd solidity.

The man at the centre is singing with his mouth wide open, probably on his way home from the New Yoshiwara pleasure quarter — visible only as a line of low rooftops beyond the rice paddies. The pair walking and the passenger in the palanquin may be heading the other way.