Parody of The Book of Joruri

Parody of The Book of Joruri, dated 1784 in the Art Institute of Chicago, belongs to the cluster of mitate-e Chōbunsai Eishi produced at the very start of his independent print career. The composition reworks the medieval romance of Yoshitsune and the lady Joruri, a tale circulated through the Joruri jūnidan zōshi and central to early puppet theater, into a scene of contemporary Edo beauties. This sort of layered allusion was a hallmark of the Chobunsai school: Eishi expected viewers to recognize the classical source even as they enjoyed the modern figures, their fashionable hairstyles and patterned kimono replacing the courtly costumes of the original tale. The print reflects Eishi's transitional moment between his Kano apprenticeship under Eisen'in Michinobu and his emergence as a designer of Edo bijin-ga in the lineage of Torii Kiyonaga. Figures are arranged in a quiet, slightly stilted procession, their elongated bodies and small heads aligning with the proportions Eishi would refine throughout the late 1780s. Color is applied in subdued areas of ground that allow line and pattern to dominate, and the design depends on intimate gesture rather than dramatic action, a restraint that distinguishes Eishi from his more theatrical contemporaries. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves the impression and documents its 1784 date, placing it among the earliest known prints Eishi signed as an independent ukiyo-e artist. For collectors interested in the literary substrate of late eighteenth-century woodblock prints, the sheet offers a clear instance of how Eishi adapted classical narrative to the visual conventions of bijin-ga.