Promenade of Famous Beauty Escorted by Many Female Attendants

This Metropolitan Museum of Art triptych depicts the promenade of a famous beauty escorted by female attendants — an extended dochu (procession) composition spread across three oban-size sheets. The Met catalogues the work as a woodblock-print triptych in ink and color on paper. The dochu subject was the most spectacular set piece of Yoshiwara culture: the procession of a top-ranking oiran from her teahouse to a client's appointment, performed with elaborate ceremonial slowness and accompanied by kamuro (child attendants), shinzo (apprentice courtesans), and other staff. Eizan's triptych deploys the full retinue across the three sheets, allowing him to compose a coordinated parade with the principal figure as the visual climax. As one of the more elaborate Kikukawa-school triptychs in the Met's collection, the print demonstrates Eizan at the upper end of his ambition.