An Elegant Parody of the Six Poetic Immortals (Furyu yatsushi rokkasen): The Priest Kisen
c. 1793
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban
Dimensions
38.8 × 25.7 cm (15 5/16 × 10 1/8 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
24154
Art Historical Context
In the vibrant world of Edo-period Japan (1603–1868), Chôbunsai Eishi, a master of uki-e woodblock prints, created *An Elegant Parody of Six Poetic Immort (Furyū yatsushi rokk): The Priest Kisen around 1793. This oban-sized color woodblock print (38.8 × 25.7 cm) reimagines the legendary poet-priest Kisen, one of the Six Poetic Immortals (Rokkasen) from the 9th century, through a lens of contemporary elegance. Eishi's series playfully disguises these ancient figures as fashionable beauties, blending classical literary reverence with the "floating world" of urban pleasures, theater, and bijin-ga...
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...