Takashima, from the series "A Collection of Flower-like Faces of Beauties (Bijin kagan shu)"
- Date:
- late 18th/early 19th century
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Takashima, from the series A Collection of Flower-like Faces of Beauties (Bijin kagan shu), held by the Art Institute of Chicago, names one of the celebrated Edo beauties of the late eighteenth century: Takashima Ohisa, daughter of a sembei (rice-cracker) shop owner in the Ryogoku district, was, along with Naniwaya Okita of the Asakusa teahouse and Tomimoto Toyohina, among the most famous bijin not of the Yoshiwara to be depicted in Edo prints during the Kansei era. Many leading designers, most notably Kitagawa Utamaro, produced okubi-e portraits of her. Chobunsai Eishi's Takashima takes its place in this print culture, but in his characteristic full-length idiom rather than the close-cropped half-length format pioneered by Utamaro. The series title, A Collection of Flower-like Faces of Beauties, signals a comparative [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) project, in which named beauties are presented in turn so that the viewer-collector can assemble the set. Eishi presents Takashima in the attenuated proportions of his Edo bijin-ga, the head quietly inclined and the body extended along the vertical of the sheet. As a Kano-trained [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) artist of samurai origin, he brought the discipline of his earlier painting training to a subject that elsewhere often risked becoming straightforwardly flattering portraiture: his figure is recognizable as Takashima while still being subordinated to his broader stylistic signature. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression dates the sheet to the late eighteenth century and preserves the soft palette his designs typically required.
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
Takashima, from the series "A Collection of Flower-like Faces of Beauties (Bijin kagan shu)" was created by Chōbunsai Eishi (鳥文斎栄之) in late 18th/early 19th century.
Takashima, from the series "A Collection of Flower-like Faces of Beauties (Bijin kagan shu)" depicts birds & flowers.
