Nightless Cities: The pleasure quarters as timescapes in early modern Japan
Schedule
Thu May 14 2026 at 06:30 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
The Whitworth | Manchester, EN
As series of talks on Japanese cultural and social history in relation to the exhibition Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige.About this Event
Join us for our second talk in the series The Floating World: People and Landscapes in Edo with Dr Angelika Koch-Low on the topic Nightless Cities: The pleasure quarters as timescapes in early modern Japan introduced by Dr Erica Baffelli.
Early modern Japan’s prostitution quarters have frequently been described as a space for “play” (asobi), separate from the regulated normality of life in the burgeoning cities of the Edo period (1600-1868). This “otherness” also found expression with regard to time and the rhythms of life in the quarters, which became “nightless cities,” where “dawn was breaking as the sun set over the city,” as a comic poem from the period put it. Time was therefore essential in defining the identity of the pleasure quarters as a particular place in the popular imagination of the day; in other words, the pleasure quarters became a discrete and distinct “timescape” – a specific place that had a specific time. This is apparent in ukiyo-e woodblock prints and popular literature from the Edo period, which often focused on specific times of the day. In this talk, I will trace these time practices relevant to Edo-period pleasure quarter life in eighteenth and nineteenth century Japan and will discuss both diurnal rhythms, as well as time measurement—two aspects of time that were central to the trade plied in the quarters, as I will show
📅 Thursday 14 May 2026
⏰ 6:30pm - 8pm
📍the Whitworth
🎟️ Book your free tickets now
Angelika Koch-Low
Angelika Koch-Low is University Lecturer in Premodern Japanese History and Culture at Leiden University. She specializes in Edo-period (1600-1868) culture and language, with a particular focus on the history of genders/sexualities and history of medicine. Her most recent publications include the online project Blood, Tears, and Samurai Love about an eighteenth-century manuscript detailing a samurai same-sex love affair (see https://japanpastandpresent.org/en/projects/blood-tears-and-samurai-love/about) and a chapter on “Sex in Eighteenth-Century Edo” for the Cambridge World History of Sexualities.
Erica Baffelli
Erica Baffelli is Professor of Japanese Studies at The University of Manchester (UK). She is interested in religion in contemporary Japan, with a focus on groups founded from the 1970s onwards. Her research projects and publication focus on religion in contemporary Japan; religion and media; new and minority religions; religion, gender and violence; and Buddhism and emotions. She currently PI on a Leverhulme Research Project on "Fear and Belonging in Minority Buddhist Communities" (2023-2027).
About the venue
The Whitworth is a venue with level access throughout, and facilities to support you during your visit. Alongside this our visitor team will be on hand to assist you in the gallery. Find out more about planning your visit to the Whitworth and accessibility information for you.
If you’d like to speak to a team member about any access or additional needs, please get in touch with the gallery and we will be happy to assist you. Email [email protected] or telephone 0161 275 7450.
The Whitworth art gallery and gardens is driven by a mission to work with communities to use art for positive social change, and actively addresses what matters most in people’s lives. We are proudly part of The University of Manchester, operating as a convening space between the University and the people of the city.
(Image credit: Beneath the Great Wave_ Hokusai, Hiroshige, and ukiyo-e print, c.1830-32)
Where is it happening?
The Whitworth, Oxford Road, Manchester, United KingdomGBP 0.00 to GBP 10.00
