Sakuragi - oil painting on 18" x 18" canvas

This is a portrait of Sakuragi Tayuu.  Tayuu were the highest ranking Japanese courtesans during the Edo period and were exceptionally skilled in the traditional Japanese arts.  Unlike geisha, tayuu were high class prostitutes in the pleasure quarters of Japan. After prostitution was made illegal in the 1950's, they became almost entirely extinct with the exception of four women who still actively keep the tayuu culture alive.  Today, they are strictly entertainers and they live and work in the Shimabara district of Kyoto.  This is one of the tayuu I saw during an annual ceremony held in northern Kyoto every April.  

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