I'm glad to say the exhibitions do not overlook the sordid side of the lives of the some 4,000 women -- both courtesans and street prostitutes -- who lived and worked and usually never escaped the Yoshiwara. The context is everything. But by now, so is the art. I say don't miss it.

As soon as I saw Taschen's luscious volumeHiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo in a museum gift shop, I knew I had to have it.