Streetwalker (Tsujigimi) 

Keisai Eisen created this woodblock print titled ‘Streetwalker’ in Japan, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. It presents an image of a woman, likely associated with the floating world of the Edo period. During this time, there were strict social hierarchies, and commercial prints of this kind often played with ideas of class and transgression. They gave the rising merchant class access to carefully policed images of courtesans and geishas. Here we see a 'streetwalker', a figure who exists outside the formal structures of pleasure quarters. The artist would have been acutely aware of the social and political context in which his art was made and distributed. The image of the 'streetwalker' might critique social norms, offering a glimpse into a world of informal, sometimes illicit, encounters. Further research into the social history of Edo-period Japan, alongside careful formal analysis, would give us a deeper understanding of its cultural significance. This would further reveal how the print challenges or reinforces the power structures of its time.