Viewing Cherry Blossoms from a Teahouse on Asuka Hill
c. 1789/90
Medium
Woodblock prints; 2 right sheets of oban triptych, keyblock and color impressions
Dimensions
50.8 × 71 cm (20 × 27 15/16 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
24085
Art Historical Context
In the late Edo period, Chôbunsai Eishi (1756–1829), a master of ukiyo-e—the "pictures of the floating world"—ured the fleeting beauty of urban life in Japan. This woodblock print *Viewing Cherry Blossoms from Teahouse on As Hill* (c. 1789/90), depicts elegant women savoring hanami, the cherished tradition of cherry blossom viewing. Eishi's refined style, with its graceful figures and subtle expressions, distinguished him from contemporaries like Utamaro, poise and intimacy amid nature's ephemeral splendor. As two right sheets of an oban triptych (measuring 50.8 × 71 cm), this work showcases ...
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...