A Selection of Six Flowers - A Parody Rokkasen (Yatsushi Rokkasen): Ono no Komachi

A Selection of Six Flowers - A Parody Rokkasen (Yatsushi Rokkasen): Ono no Komachi, dated 1794 in the Art Institute of Chicago, casts the celebrated Heian poet Ono no Komachi in the form of a contemporary beauty. Komachi, the only woman among the Rokkasen and the subject of an extensive medieval legend, was a recurring presence in Chōbunsai Eishi's output, and her appearance here within the Yatsushi Rokkasen series allows him to combine the prestige of classical poetry with the visual conventions of Edo bijin-ga. The yatsushi mode invites a layered reading: emblematic attributes signal the classical source, while the surface remains a refined portrait in the Chobunsai school manner. Eishi's elongated proportions, long sustained contour lines, and restrained palette are all in evidence, with patterned textiles and cartouche carrying the design's identifying weight. His training under the Kano master Eisen'in Michinobu in the shogun's studio lent his prints a measured spatial dignity that suited the literary mitate framework, while his samurai-class background prepared him to handle classical material with the assurance expected by the literate audience of late eighteenth-century Edo. By 1794 Eishi had established himself as the leading designer of refined bijin-ga, his cool register a deliberate alternative to the more heated theatricality of contemporaries such as Kitagawa Utamaro. The Art Institute of Chicago records the impression's 1794 date and confirms its place within the Yatsushi Rokkasen series.