Act VII (Shichidanme), from the series "Perspective Pictures of the Storehouse of Loyal Retainers (Uki-e kanadehon Chushingura)"

Act VII (Shichidanme) from Kitao Masayoshi's perspective-picture series of Kanadehon Chushingura, held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to circa 1791-1794, treats one of the most celebrated scenes in all of kabuki: the Ichirikiya teahouse scene in the Gion pleasure district of Kyoto. Here the loyal retainer Yuranosuke feigns dissolution to mislead his enemies' spies, drinking and carousing in the teahouse while secretly continuing to plan the vendetta. Masayoshi's uki-e treatment exploits the deep interior spaces of the teahouse, its sliding screens and elevated rooms drawn in receding perspective borrowed from European print conventions and transmitted to Japan through Dutch and Chinese channels. The horizontal o-oban format magnifies the architectural drama. This print rewards close looking for the way Masayoshi balances the geometric severity of perspectival receding lines against the soft, gestural treatment of the figures, particularly the courtesans and attendants moving through the layered rooms. As one panel in a complete eleven-act series, it also shows Masayoshi's commitment to ambitious serial projects within the established ukiyo-e marketplace before his shift toward sketch-album work.