Girl Riding an Ox

Girl Riding an Ox is a Keisai Eisen [surimono](/glossary/surimono) held at the Art Institute of Chicago, with a date of approximately 1800. The image belongs to the strand of Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) that draws on Chinese literary precedents — the herding boy on an ox, a figure of Daoist and Zen ease — and refits them for a Japanese audience by transforming the rider into a Japanese girl. Eisen seats the young figure sideways on the ox's broad back, one hand resting lightly on its withers, the other holding a sprig or fan in a relaxed grip. The ox itself is rendered with patient observation: heavy black ink lines describe the slack hide and curved horns, while the underbelly and legs are picked out in subtler tones. The girl's kimono offers Eisen the chance to indulge his characteristic textile detail, with a patterned obi knot and trailing sleeves that pick up gold and silver pigments in the print's surimono surface. As with most of his deluxe prints of this period, kyoka verses are distributed around the figures, framing the image as a New Year or seasonal greeting and identifying the poetry coterie behind the commission. Although Eisen's modern reputation rests on his powerful portraits of fashionable women, this print demonstrates a softer side of his [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) vocabulary, in which a child's body, a domestic animal, and a literary allusion are made to coexist without strain. The Art Institute's surviving impression preserves the embossed and gilded surfaces that would have struck the original Edo recipients as exceptionally luxurious objects.