The Cloth-fulling Jewel River in Settsu Province

The Cloth-fulling Jewel River in Settsu Province, from Rekisentei Eiri's Six Jewel Rivers series (Mu Tamagawa), is an [aiban](/glossary/aiban) (medium vertical format) color woodblock print of around 1785. The Tamagawa of Tetsukuri-no-sato in Settsu Province was famed in classical poetry for the bleaching of hand-woven hemp cloth on its banks under the early summer sun, and Eiri pictures a tall, slender beauty whose long-necked elegance and elongated proportions translate the rustic kinuta motif into the courtly visual idiom that defines the Chōbunsai school. The figure carries a length of pale, freshly bleached cloth, her kimono pattern echoing the woven textures of the textile. The flattened, almost monochromatic background — a hallmark of the school's late-1780s manner — directs full attention to the rhythm of the figure's silhouette, while the kyōka inscription above identifies the literary source. The Six Jewel Rivers series belongs to the central strategy of Chōbunsai [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga): mitate compositions that lift contemporary Yoshiwara fashion into the rarefied air of Heian-period poetic geography. Eiri's set runs in conscious parallel with the similarly titled series his teacher Chōbunsai Eishi produced in the same years. Impressions are held by the Art Institute of Chicago.