Taken during the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival. Yoshiwara was the old licensed prostitution quarter in old Edo. The festival started sometime between 1716 and 1735 and was celebration that coincided with Kurosuke Inari festival at the Yoshiwara Shrine. The courtesans as well as patrons would wear fox masks and play music, dance, put on skits and then proceed in a procession with paper lanterns as the day melted into night in the heat of the 8th month.