Konzatsu Yamato sōga

Konzatsu Yamato Soga is an undated woodblock print by Isoda Koryusai whose title, literally translatable as Miscellaneous Yamato Pictures, identifies it as belonging to a category of varied subject sketches the Edo bijin-ga master produced alongside his more formal projects. The Yamato in the title gestures toward Yamato-e, the indigenous Japanese painting tradition that Koryusai's prints often invoked through subject matter and compositional principles, while the term Konzatsu acknowledges the heterogeneous gathering of motifs that the print or sequence brought together. Koryusai's career spanned a remarkable range of subjects, from the courtesan portraits of Hinagata Wakana no Hatsu Moyo to bird-and-flower studies, classical literary references, and street-life vignettes, and works carrying titles like this one often functioned as compendia of his vocabulary. His samurai background gave him a familiarity with classical Japanese painting that informed both the figures and the landscape elements visible in such collections, and the disciplined contour drawing that distinguishes his print designs throughout the 1770s and into the early 1780s is fully present here. The undated nature of the print makes precise placement difficult, but the visual idiom is consistent with Koryusai's mature output and reflects the audience demand for variety that animated the Edo printmaking economy. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression among its substantial Koryusai holdings, where it serves as a record of the artist's range beyond the celebrated bijin-ga series with which his name is most closely associated.