Parody of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove

This oban diptych keyblock proof impression at the Art Institute of Chicago shows the right sheet of a parody (mitate-e) of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, the famous third-century Chinese gathering of Daoist scholars who retreated into a bamboo forest to drink, write poetry, and discuss philosophy. The mitate-e genre, central to Tenmei-era ukiyo-e, transposed classical Chinese or Japanese subjects into contemporary Edo settings, typically replacing the original protagonists with elegantly dressed Yoshiwara courtesans or fashionable townswomen. The visual joke depends on the viewer's recognition of the source: where Wei-Jin literati had assembled in bamboo, Shuncho's Edo women now gather in a comparable setting, the classical learning of the original transformed into a witty commentary on contemporary leisure. The keyblock proof impression, taken from the carved keyblock before color blocks were applied, is particularly valuable to scholars because it shows Shuncho's drawn line without the masking effect of color overlays.