A Room at Maruyama

A Room at Maruyama, held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (sc214157), is one of the earliest dated Ōkyo prints, with the museum recording 1759 as its date. The composition is a megane-e (perspective picture) showing the interior of a teahouse or restaurant at the Maruyama district of eastern Kyoto — the geisha and restaurant quarter on the slopes of Higashiyama, east of the Kamo River. The print exploits the receding lines of tatami matting, sliding paper doors (fusuma and shōji), and supporting beams to construct a single-point perspective view into the interior; figures of patrons, attendants, and entertainers are ranged along the floor in the conventional Kyoto restaurant layout. The 1759 dating, if accurate, would place this among Ōkyo's very earliest signed works, made during his employment at the Owariya toy shop where he designed perspective prints for the nozoki-karakuri optical viewer market. The Maruyama district shares its name with the painter's adopted surname, although the connection is incidental — Ōkyo took the name from his family village of Anō rather than from the Kyoto district. The print bears the early signature 'Iwasuke' or 'Kawahisa' that Ōkyo used before adopting his mature name in the early 1760s. Surviving examples of his pre-1765 megane-e are rare and document the apprentice phase before he established himself as an independent master.