The Theater District in Sakai-cho (Sakai cho shibai), from the "Fashionable Eight Views of the Eastern Capital (Furyu Toto hakkei)"

Also from "Fashionable Eight Views of the Eastern Capital (Furyu Toto hakkei)" and dated c. 1824/29 by the Art Institute of Chicago, this oban depicts Sakai-cho — one of the two licensed kabuki theater districts of Edo, home to the Nakamura and Ichimura theaters. Sakai-cho and Fukiya-cho were the heart of Edo theater life until the Tenpo reforms of 1841-1842 forced relocation of all theaters to the more remote Asakusa district as Saruwaka-cho. Eizan's print captures the district at the end of its golden age, framed through his usual bijin-ga lens: a fashionable woman whose pose, accessories, or kimono pattern alludes to the theatergoing pleasure of the place. As one of the latest Eizan series in the Art Institute's holdings, the Toto hakkei demonstrates that he remained a serious participant in Edo's competitive print market well into the mid-1820s, even as Eisen and others began to assume the foreground of the Kikukawa school.