Seven Gods of Good Fortune in a Treasure Ship

This Katsukawa Shunsho print depicts the Seven Gods of Good Fortune (Shichifukujin) aboard their treasure ship (takarabune), a subject deeply rooted in popular Japanese belief that became one of the standard auspicious motifs of Edo ukiyo-e. Such prints were associated above all with the New Year: people placed images of the treasure ship beneath their pillows on the second night of the year in hopes of an auspicious first dream, and treasure-ship prints sold widely in the weeks leading up to the festival. Shunsho is best known as the leader of the Katsukawa school and the great reformer of yakusha-e, but he also produced a steady stream of bijin-ga, surimono and these calendrical print subjects throughout his career. In this design the seven deities -- Daikoku, Ebisu, Bishamonten, Benten, Fukurokuju, Jurojin and Hotei -- are arranged within the treasure-laden ship, each identifiable by traditional attributes such as Daikoku's mallet, Ebisu's fish, Fukurokuju's elongated head, and Hotei's sack. The print is held in the Clarence Buckingham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. It shows the breadth of Shunsho's practice within the Edo ukiyo-e tradition, and demonstrates how the Katsukawa school's success in actor portraiture coexisted with the workshop's continued production of conventional auspicious subjects for the city's seasonal market.