Calligraphy, from the series "Fashionable Versions of the Four Accomplishments (Furyu kinkishoga)"

Calligraphy by Isoda Koryusai is a plate from the series Furyu Kinkishoga, Fashionable Versions of the Four Accomplishments, in which the four classical Chinese accomplishments of music, the board game go, calligraphy, and painting are reimagined through the elegant pastimes of the Yoshiwara. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves the impression that documents this design, dating it to 1771. The Four Accomplishments, or kinkishoga, had long been a recognized cluster of virtuoso pursuits associated with the literati class in China and Japan, and they offered ukiyo-e designers a particularly rich subject for parody because the same pursuits had filtered into the polite repertoire of leading courtesans. In Koryusai's print, the act of calligraphy is performed by a courtesan or her attendant, allowing the audience to enjoy the substitution of Yoshiwara woman for Chinese scholar while admiring the genuine command of brush and ink that leading courtesans were expected to display. The series belongs to the same broader project as Koryusai's celebrated Hinagata Wakana Hatsu Moyo, in which courtesan portraiture absorbs the layered cultural references of Edo bijin-ga without losing its commercial function. For collectors, the print is an elegant example of how Koryusai used the Four Accomplishments tradition to celebrate the literary aspirations of the Yoshiwara.