Night Scene in the Yoshiwara

What you see

A large wooden lattice fills the left half. Behind it, in a bright room, women in vividly colored kimonos can be glimpsed; in front, on the dark street, passersby are reduced almost to silhouettes. At the center, a little girl carries a lantern hanging from a pole. On the right, more women sit in a raised room, while below a woman with a hairstyle full of ornaments moves forward beside a large lantern.

The light comes from many places at once: the interior, the paper lanterns and a lamp hung on the pillar, each casting its own pool on the ground. Look for the stripes of light the lattice throws onto the street at lower left, and the blue curtain with white lettering at upper right.