Flirting Lovers

Held in the Art Institute of Chicago and dating to circa 1673 to 1681, Flirting Lovers is an [oban](/glossary/oban) yoko-e sumizuri-e print that captures the playful, suggestive register Moronobu pioneered in his erotic and quasi-erotic single sheets. Printed entirely in black ink from a single woodblock, the work relies on his exceptional command of line to convey the warmth and intimacy of the moment, with the lovers' postures, gazes, and the gentle tangle of their robes carrying all the narrative information. The horizontal oban yoko-e format was particularly suited to scenes of two figures interacting, and Moronobu exploited this proportion to set his subjects against a relatively spare ground that emphasizes their physical and emotional relationship. The textile patterns on their kimonos, rendered with the dense precision he inherited from his family's embroidery practice, contrast with the open negative space around them, a compositional rhythm that would become a defining characteristic of [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) for centuries. As one of Moronobu's mid-career single sheets, Flirting Lovers represents the moment when single-sheet woodblock prints were establishing themselves as collectible art objects in their own right, no longer subordinate to the books from which the genre had emerged.