Young Woman in the Glow of Sunset (Musume no sekisho), from the series "Eight Views of Fashionable Human Relations (Furyu jinrin mitate hakkei)"

From Koryusai's series Furyu jinrin mitate hakkei (Eight Views of Fashionable Human Relations), held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to about 1770 to 1772, this chuban print represents Musume no sekisho (Young Woman in the Glow of Sunset), one of the eight views in a parodic transposition of the canonical hakkei tradition onto the categories of human relationships. The series replaces the classical eight scenes of Xiao and Xiang (autumn moon, evening bell, evening snow, descending geese, and the others) with eight figural types drawn from the world of Edo human relations: maiden, mother, lover, and so on. Each is paired with one of the canonical weather or time-of-day motifs from the original hakkei. The Musume no sekisho design pairs the figure of a young woman with the evening glow motif, and the series exemplifies Koryusai's playful sophistication with mitate parody and his ability to reanimate canonical landscape schemes through bijin-ga substitution.