Gathering at a Teahouse on the Bank of the Sumida River
c. 1788/90
Medium
Color woodblock print; right sheet of oban diptych
Dimensions
38.5 × 26.7 cm (15 1/8 × 10 1/2 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
24069
Art Historical Context
**Gathering at a Teah on the Bank of theida River** *ôbunsai Eishi, c. 1788/90* Color woodblock print; right sheet of oban diptych, 38.5 × 26.7 cm. Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia. Chôbunsai Eishi, a leading ukiyo-e artist of Japan's Edo period, captures the elegance of urban leisure in this vibrant color woodblock print. As the right panel of an oban diptych—a large-format, two-sheet composition—this artwork depicts a lively gathering at a teahouse along the Sumida River in Edo (modern Tokyo). Courtesans, revelers, and attendants converse amid cherry blossoms and river views, embo...
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...