A Woman's Poetry Party
c. 1793
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban triptych
Dimensions
37.7 × 74.4 cm (14 7/8 × 29 5/16 in.); Left sheet: 37.7 × 24.2 cm (14 7/8 × 9 9/16 in.); Center sheet: 37.7 × 25.4 cm (14 7/8 × 10 in.); Right sheet: 37.7 × 24.8 cm (14 7/8 × 9 13/16 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
89423
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Generally, the groups of women depicted in prints were courtesans and their attendants, possibly waiting for male guests. In this unusual print, well-dressed women of the upper classes arrive in the large open parlor of the palace of a daimyo (a provincial governor) near the sea at Suma. The three votive-style hangings in the tokonoma (alcove) in the right background indicate the poetry party. Shown are three ancient poets revered in the Edo period: eighth-century Kakinomoto no Hitomaro and Yama...
About the Artist
Chôbunsai Eishi · 1756–1829
Chôbunsai Eishi, born Hosoda Tokitomi in 1756 to a prosperous samurai family of the Fujiwara clan in Edo, inherited a substantial stipend of 500 koku of rice annually. His grandfather had served as the shogunate's Treasury Minister, and upon his father Hosoda Tokiyuki's death in 1772, Eishi became family head while holding a position in Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu's palace from 1781. Unusually for a uk...