Clearing Breeze from a Fan (Ogi no seiran)

Clearing Breeze from a Fan (Ogi no seiran), circa 1772, is a koban color woodblock print held by the Art Institute of Chicago. The title plays on the Eight Views tradition: "Clearing Breeze from a Mountain Pass" (Yamatsuto no seiran) was one of the canonical Chinese Eight Views topics, and in the ukiyo-e parody tradition the original landscape elements were swapped for everyday domestic objects. Here a fan (ogi) substitutes for the mountain pass, with the "clearing breeze" provided by the woman waving the fan - a witty visual pun typical of mitate-e culture. The koban (small format) sheet, often trimmed, made these literate parody prints affordable and collectible. By around 1772, Shigemasa was working in full nishiki-e color, and the Art Institute impression preserves the layered polychrome palette that distinguishes mature ukiyo-e from the earlier benizuri-e and mizu-e techniques visible in his earlier holdings. This print demonstrates the kind of clever literary play that defined high-end ukiyo-e of the early 1770s, in which the educated viewer was expected to recognize the underlying classical reference as part of the pleasure of the image.