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Bunya no Yasuhide, from the series "Fashionable Children as the Six Immortal Poets (Furyu kodakara rokkasen)" by Kikukawa Eizan — Japanese Color woodblock print; oban, c. 1814/17

Bunya no Yasuhide, from the series "Fashionable Children as the Six Immortal Poets (Furyu kodakara rokkasen)"

by Kikukawa Eizan

Date:
c. 1814/17
Medium:
Color woodblock print; oban

Description

Another oban from "Fashionable Children as the Six Immortal Poets," dated c. 1814/17 by the Art Institute of Chicago, this sheet identifies its young sitter with Bunya no Yasuhide, the ninth-century waka poet known for a famously witty poem on autumn winds. Eizan poses the child in a manner that suggests the poet's signature theme — typically a gesture or accessory connected to wind, leaves, or season — while keeping the costume and styling firmly contemporary. The print is part of the larger six-sheet set held by the Art Institute, and seeing it together with its companion sheets makes clear how Eizan calibrated each child's pose to a different Rokkasen attribute, building a small ukiyo-e narrative across the series. As a piece of the children-as-classics genre it is also a reminder of how Edo's print culture rewarded literary insider knowledge: the joke of mitate worked only when the viewer recognized the classical reference behind the modern figure.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Bunya no Yasuhide, from the series "Fashionable Children as the Six Immortal Poets (Furyu kodakara rokkasen)" was created by Kikukawa Eizan (菊川英山) in c. 1814/17.

Bunya no Yasuhide, from the series "Fashionable Children as the Six Immortal Poets (Furyu kodakara rokkasen)" depicts children.