Senzan of the Choji-ya with her kamuro's Isoji and Hanaji

This portrait of Senzan of the Choji-ya with her kamuro Isoji and Hanaji is closely related to Chobunsai Eishi's other Senzan compositions, drawing on the same named courtesan and the same iconographic formula of the oiran flanked by her young attendants. The slight variation in attendant names across surviving Eishi prints of Senzan suggests that the courtesan's attendant cohort changed over time, as kamuro graduated to higher ranks and were replaced by new girls. Such named-courtesan portraits served the commercial purposes of the Yoshiwara houses by advertising their most celebrated women, and they served the cultural purposes of the print-buying public by providing a kind of celebrity iconography of the pleasure quarter. Eishi's treatment elevates the genre with the patrician sensibility that distinguished his Edo [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) from the work of competitors such as Utamaro and Eishosai Choki. The courtesan is rendered with the long-limbed elongation that characterized his figures, her robes drawn in the unbroken curves that conveyed cool aristocratic composure rather than sensual immediacy. His Kano-trained [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) drawing carries through to every detail of the elaborate hair ornaments and textile patterns. Before turning to commercial print design, Eishi had served as a painter to the shogun under Eisen-in Michinobu, and the disciplined painterly habits of his court training informed his entire approach to printed portraiture. The impression is documented through ukiyo-e.org's aggregation of museum, dealer, and collector records of surviving Eishi sheets.