Kiyomizu, from the series "Seven Komachi (Nana Komachi)"

Kiyomizu, from the series Seven Komachi (Nana Komachi), dated 1786 in the Art Institute of Chicago, belongs to Chōbunsai Eishi's recurring engagement with the legendary Heian poet Ono no Komachi, whose biography was structured by tradition into seven canonical episodes. Each episode in the Nana Komachi convention was set in a specific location or scene, and Kiyomizu, the famed temple in the eastern hills of Kyoto, carried strong associations with prayer, pilgrimage, and the suspended beauty of Komachi's romantic narratives. Eishi treats the subject in the literary mitate mode central to the Chobunsai school: a contemporary Edo beauty stands in for the legendary poet, and the viewer is invited to recognize the classical source through emblematic details while enjoying the modern surface. His training in the Kano studio of Eisen'in Michinobu lends the figure an unusual measured composure, and his characteristic tall, slender proportions and long sustained contours align her with the broader aesthetic of late 1780s Edo [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga). Color is restrained, allowing the patterned textiles and the calligraphy of the cartouches to function as graphic anchors. The Nana Komachi series was a celebrated framework in painting and poetry across the Edo period, and Eishi's engagement with it positions him within a long tradition of artists who used Komachi to think about beauty, time, and the relationship between classical and contemporary worlds. The Art Institute of Chicago documents the 1786 date and confirms the print's place in this important early series.