Beauties Parodying the Seven Sages - A Selection of Younger Courtesans (Shichi kenjin yatsushi bijin shinzo zoroe): Hanasaki of the Daimonjiya
c. 1793
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban
Dimensions
38.1 × 25.4 cm (15 × 10 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
24143
Art Historical Context
In the vibrant world of Edo-period Japan (1603–1868), Chôbunsai Eishi's *Beauties Parodying the Seven Sages - A Selection of Younger Courtesans (Shichi kenjin yatsushi bijin shinzo zoroe): Hanasaki of the Daimonjiya* (c. 1793) captures the playful elegance of ukiyo-e, the "pictures of the floating world." This color woodblock print, in the popular oban format (38.1 × 25.4 cm), showcases Eishi's mastery of bijin-ga—portraits of beautiful women—from the Yoshiwara pleasure district. Here, the courtesan Hanasaki from the Daimonjiya house whimsically embodies one of the legendary Seven Sages of the...
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...