Hanamurasaki of the Kadotamaya, from the series Six Flowery Immortals of the Pleasure Quarters (Seiro bijin rokkasen)
- Date:
- c. 1794/95
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Hanamurasaki of the Kadotamaya, from the series Six Flowery Immortals of the Pleasure Quarters (Seiro bijin rokkasen), dated 1789 in the Art Institute of Chicago, casts a named courtesan of the Kadotamaya house in one of the roles of the canonical six Heian poets. The Rokkasen, selected by Ki no Tsurayuki in the preface to the Kokin wakashū, were a touchstone of classical literary education across the Edo period, and Chōbunsai Eishi's Seiro bijin rokkasen series adapts the convention into the world of the licensed quarters. Each sheet pairs a famous courtesan with one of the immortals, treating her at once as a portrait subject and as a literary stand-in, the layered reading of the yatsushi mode central to the Chobunsai school. Hanamurasaki is staged with the elongated proportions, long sustained contours, and restrained color that define Eishi's mature Edo [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), while patterned textiles carry the work of identifying her status and house. His training under the Kano master Eisen'in Michinobu in the shogun's studio is evident in the calm spatial discipline of the composition. The conjunction of named oiran and classical poet was a high-status conceit that aligned the Yoshiwara with the prestige of classical literature, a strategy that suited Eishi's samurai-class background and the audience of literate Edo connoisseurs who valued such double readings. The Art Institute of Chicago records the impression's 1789 date and its place within the Seiro bijin rokkasen series.
c. 1790
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1789/95
Color woodblock print; right sheet of oban triptych
c. 1791/92
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1793
Color woodblock print; oban
Hanamurasaki of the Kadotamaya, from the series Six Flowery Immortals of the Pleasure Quarters (Seiro bijin rokkasen) was created by Chōbunsai Eishi (鳥文斎栄之) in c. 1794/95.
Hanamurasaki of the Kadotamaya, from the series Six Flowery Immortals of the Pleasure Quarters (Seiro bijin rokkasen) depicts birds & flowers.
