A Woman's Poetry Party
Chôbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756-1829)
c. 1793
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; oban triptych
- Classification
- 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.)
- Culture
- Japan
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
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 Yamabe no Akihito; in the center is the sixth-century poetess Sotori.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
