A Party of Geisha in a Suzumi-bune (Second Scene of a Boating Party)

A circa 1796 woodblock print in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this is the second sheet of a pentaptych (five-sheet composition) depicting a party of geisha aboard a suzumi-bune — a 'cooling-off boat' that floated on the Sumida River in Edo on summer evenings, offering an open-air respite from the city's heat. Pleasure boating on the Sumida was a defining summer pastime of Edo, an annual ritual that brought the city's pleasure-quarter culture out onto the river under the night sky and combined music, food, drink, and fireworks viewing. Prints depicting boating parties allowed designers to spread a sequence of fashionable figures across multiple sheets in a long horizontal frieze that mimicked the actual extended geometry of a river boat. Pentaptychs are unusual in ukiyo-e — the standard multi-sheet format is the triptych — and Chōki's choice of five sheets gives the design exceptional horizontal reach, placing it among the most ambitious compositions of his career. The Met's second sheet is one of the surviving panels of the original composition and shows his skill at sustained pictorial design across multiple sheets.