“Geishas waiting for guests”

Author, author technique ANNA POTRI
size 72 x 48 cm 2017 
Geishas (literally “women of art”) were educated interlocutors, pleasant dancers and singers in all respects, they also mastered the art of playing musical instruments. Knowing well literature and poetry, mastering the art of versification, they were extremely popular, poems were dedicated to them, people came to just admire them. But with all the grace and manners, sophistication and external gloss, the cheerful quarters of Yoshiwara had their own gloomy side. Women, for the most part, were slaves and prisoners. On the engravings we see the monotony and boredom of their daily lives: they pet cats, fiddle with each other, look from behind bars at the moon. All of them were held captive by melancholy, waiting for guests.