Young Woman Performing Sanbaso Dance

Young Woman Performing Sanbaso Dance, a circa 1770 woodblock print by Isoda Koryusai, captures a vignette from the Edo bijin-ga tradition that merges everyday femininity with the formality of ritual performance. Sanbaso is the third dance of the Okina cycle, one of the most ancient and ceremonially weighted pieces in the Noh repertoire, traditionally performed at New Year and on other auspicious occasions to call down blessings on the audience and the land. By placing a young woman in the role of the Sanbaso dancer rather than the older male performer Noh convention required, Koryusai exploits a popular Edo conceit of mitate, the witty substitution that allows contemporary subjects to inhabit roles drawn from classical theater. The figure raises a fan or rattle in the gesture characteristic of the dance, her kimono cinched and her body bent slightly forward in the controlled vigor of the choreography. Koryusai's draftsmanship gives the costume tactile weight, with bold patterning across the sleeves and a sash that anchors the diagonal momentum of the pose. He inherited the elongated figure type of Suzuki Harunobu but began here to thicken and steady it, prefiguring the more substantial women who would populate Hinagata Wakana no Hatsu Moyo, his celebrated Yoshiwara fashion series of the later 1770s. The Art Institute of Chicago houses this impression, which documents Koryusai's interest in Noh-themed mitate during the early 1770s.