Asakusa tanbo torinomachi mōde (Asakusa ricefields and torinomachi festival). Ukiyo-e print shows a cat sitting on a wall where the sliding panels have been opened, watching the festival procession in the rice paddies nearby, with view of Mount Fuji in the distance. Color woodcut by Andō Hiroshige. No. 101 in the series Meisho Yedo Hiakkei (One Hundred Famous Views of Edo), eleventh month of 1857. This image offers a view from the second story of a Yoshiwara brothel over the Asakusa Ricefields, toward a dense procession of visitors to the Torinomachi Festival, held at Washi Daimyojin Shrine (to the right – not seen here). The god of this shrine is an eagle (washi), popular among those in the entertainment trades. Particularly popular during the festival were "kumade," bamboo rakes decorated with symbols of prosperity offered at the many stalls in and around Washi Shrine. It was the only time ordinary women were allowed to enter the gates to the Yoshiwara. It was also a "monbi," a special day on which each courtesan was required by tradition to take a customer, or pay the fee to the brothel owner if she failed. It was the single busiest day of the year in the Yoshiwara. This scene shows the room of a courtesan who has just had an afternoon customer. He probably brought her as a gift the set of "kumade" hairpins, one of which has been pulled out and admired. On the window sill is a mouth-rinsing bowl and a used towel; to the left is the border of a folding screen decorated with a bird motif, and just above the hairpins is a parcel of tissue papers delicately known as onkotogami, or "paper for the honorable act." In the foreground is an exquisitely detailed cat. From the Japanese Fine Prints Collection at the Library of Congress More Hiroshige woodcuts | More Japanese fine prints [PD] This picture is in the public domain.