Matsubaya Wakana 松葉や若那 (Wakana of Matsubaya) / Seiro bijin rokkasen 青楼美人六花仙 (The Six Poetic Beauties of the Green Houses)

Wakana of the Matsubaya, from Seiro bijin rokkasen (The Six Poetic Beauties of the Green Houses), is held by the British Museum (object AN00155640) and indexed through ukiyo-e.org. The series, one of Chobunsai Eishi's most enduring designs, pairs six contemporary Yoshiwara courtesans with the rokkasen, the six poet-immortals canonized by Ki no Tsurayuki in the preface to the Kokin Wakashu. The Matsubaya was one of the leading houses of the licensed quarter, and Wakana was among its most celebrated oiran. Eishi's portrait deploys the visual vocabulary that distinguished his Edo bijin-ga: a tall slender figure, robes built from long calm contour lines, a composed and aristocratic face, and a restrained palette that signals dignity rather than sensual immediacy. These qualities are the product of his Kano-trained ukiyo-e practice. Apprenticed to Kano Eisen'in Michinobu before serving as a painter to the shogun Tokugawa Ieharu, Eishi brought academic disciplines of contour and composition with him when he turned to commercial print design in the 1780s. The mitate framework of the series allowed him to combine those disciplines with the topical interest of named-courtesan portraiture, layering Heian literary reference over Yoshiwara celebrity. The British Museum record is the primary documentary anchor for publisher, signature variant, censor seal, dating, and condition. Wakana of the Matsubaya is among the most representative single sheets of Eishi's mature Yoshiwara mitate practice.