Unknown- bijin kakiemono-e

Unknown - bijin kakimono-e is a vertical bijin-ga sheet by Keisai Eisen in the kakimono-e (also kakemono-e) format: a tall, narrow print, typically of two oban sheets joined end to end, intended to be hung in the manner of a painted scroll (kakemono) rather than collected in an album. Kakimono-e was one of the most demanding formats for an Edo ukiyo-e bijin-ga designer because the elongated vertical field allowed - and required - a full-length figure with carefully judged proportions from the top of the coiffure to the trailing hem of the outer robe. Eisen (1790-1848) was, alongside Utagawa Toyokuni and Keisai Eisen's own pupils, one of the principal exponents of the format in the Bunsei and Tenpo eras. The sheet preserved at ukiyo-e.org (Eisen Keisai, No Series, Unknown bijin kakiemono-e) shows the unidentified subject in the full apparatus of late-Edo female fashion: layered kimono, a heavy patterned outer robe, an obi worked with auspicious motifs and an elaborate cluster of combs and pins. Eisen's characteristic elongated neck and small head are pushed to their limits by the format. As a kakimono-e the print also reflects the way Edo ukiyo-e was edging closer to the conventions of painting in its more ambitious bijin-ga: a single hung sheet that asks to be looked at the way a painted scroll would be looked at.