Parody of Prince Genji and his procession

Parody of Prince Genji and His Procession is an ambitious oban pentaptych (five-panel large-format) color woodblock print by Rekisentei Eiri produced around 1790-1800. The composition unfolds horizontally across five connected oban sheets in a panoramic frieze of the kind that late-Edo bijin-ga designers occasionally attempted for their most elaborate literary subjects. The print is a mitate — a witty visual translation — of the imperial procession of Prince Genji, hero of the eleventh-century Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), recast as a stately cortège of Yoshiwara beauties accompanying a present-day Genji figure through the licensed quarter. The conceit belongs to the central project of the Chōbunsai school, which under the guidance of Chōbunsai Eishi systematically translated Heian-period courtly imagery into contemporary Yoshiwara visual culture. Eiri's tall, slender figures, rendered in the school's signature attenuated proportions, form a rhythmic horizontal line across the five sheets, their long necks and narrow oval faces echoed in the verticals of the parasol shafts and procession standards. The muted palette of pale silvers, ivories, and soft plums preserves the aristocratic atmosphere characteristic of Chōbunsai bijin-ga. Pentaptychs are among the most ambitious formats in late-Edo printmaking, and Eiri's Genji parody is one of the most expansive surviving designs from his small corpus. Impressions are held by the Art Institute of Chicago.