This 1771 print by Isoda Koryusai, catalogued by the Art Institute of Chicago under artwork 58907, comes from Comic Performances by the Entertainers of the Pleasure Quarters at the Niwaka Festival (Seiro geiko niwaka kyogen zukushi) and pairs musicians from the Tamaya Yahachi with hobby-horse dancers from the Daimon Fujiya. The Niwaka was an annual festival in the Yoshiwara during which the entertainers of the quarter mounted comic theatrical performances, and Koryusai's series documents specific named acts from specific named houses, treating the festival as a parade of identifiable performances within Edo bijin-ga. The composition divides its attention between the musicians, who provide the accompaniment, and the dancers, who carry the small horse-headed prop fixed at the waist that defined the haru-koma or hobby-horse dance. Costume detail is central, with robes and obis rendered in the patterned textile registers familiar from Koryusai's named-courtesan portraits, while the dancers' poses introduce a more dynamic line than the static standing format of Hinagata Wakana. The print belongs to the broader documentary project through which Koryusai used named entertainers from named houses as the building blocks of a survey of Yoshiwara life, here extended into the theatrical occasion of the Niwaka festival. The Art Institute's record preserves the series title, the named houses, and the named performances.
Woodblock print
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, harimaze
Woodblock print
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Musicians from Tamaya Yahachi and hobby-horse dancers from Daimon Fujiya, from the series "Comic Performances by the Entertainers of the Pleasure Quarters at the Niwaka Festival (Seiro geiko niwaka kyogen zukushi)" was created by Isoda Koryūsai (礒田湖龍斎) in c. 1776/81.
Musicians from Tamaya Yahachi and hobby-horse dancers from Daimon Fujiya, from the series "Comic Performances by the Entertainers of the Pleasure Quarters at the Niwaka Festival (Seiro geiko niwaka kyogen zukushi)" depicts mount fuji.
