Performance of a Trained Monkey, from an illustrated poetry anthology entitled "The Young God Ebisu (Waka Ebisu)"

Dated about 1789 and in the Art Institute of Chicago, Performance of a Trained Monkey, from an illustrated poetry anthology titled The Young God Ebisu (Waka Ebisu), is a Kitagawa Utamaro design that bridges single-sheet ukiyo-e and the world of illustrated kyōka and haikai books. The Waka Ebisu anthology gathered poems with Ebisu, the youthful god of fishermen and prosperity, as a focal point. Trained-monkey performances (sarumawashi) were a familiar street entertainment in Edo, often associated with New Year and the wider iconography of auspicious beginnings; their inclusion here connects the everyday spectacle of city life to the festive themes around Ebisu. Utamaro's design depicts a small group of figures clustered around the performer and his monkey, with women and perhaps children among the spectators. His handling of the female figures shares the visual codes of his Edo bijin-ga, while the male performer and the agile monkey introduce a more anecdotal, almost reportorial energy. Anthology illustration allowed Utamaro to work in concert with poets and editors, embedding his pictorial designs in a literate, kyōka-rich social world that was crucial to the patronage and intellectual prestige of late-Edo ukiyo-e. As a result, the Art Institute's impression illustrates how Utamaro's reach extended beyond stand-alone prints into the carefully orchestrated illustrated books that helped consolidate the bijin-ga master's reputation among Edo's poetry circles.