Ehon Fukujin takara-fukuro

Ehon Fukujin takara-fukuro ("Picture Book of the Treasure Bag of the Lucky Gods") is an illustrated book by Suzuki Harunobu in the Art Institute of Chicago, in which the popular pantheon of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune supplies a structural pretext for a sequence of figural compositions. The lucky gods — figures such as Daikoku, Ebisu, Hotei, and Benzaiten — had long been beloved of Edo audiences for their associations with longevity, prosperity, and abundance, and they were a frequent subject in painting, sculpture, and prints. Harunobu adapts them to his own gentle pictorial language, often blending them with townspeople or treating their attributes — the bag of treasures, the fishing rod, the lute — as objects in everyday scenes. The book belongs to the same orbit as his single-sheet nishiki-e, and many of its compositions show the slender, doll-like figures, refined textile patterns, and carefully balanced palettes that mark his Edo bijin-ga. As an album, it permitted a more extended visual program than a single print, and surviving copies preserve color and line because they spent much of their life closed. The Art Institute of Chicago's holding allows researchers to study Suzuki Harunobu's contribution to the Edo book trade and his integration of auspicious religious imagery into the wider polite print culture.