Eight Indoor Scenes (Zashiki Hakkei): A Towel Stand-A Boat Returning Home (Tenuguikake kihan)

A Towel Stand — A Boat Returning Home (Tenuguikake kihan), from Eight Indoor Scenes (Zashiki Hakkei), recorded on ukiyo-e.org from an Art Institute of Chicago impression, is another of Suzuki Harunobu's mitate transpositions of the classical Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang. Where the original cycle includes a Returning Sailboat among its scenic categories, Harunobu maps that landscape image onto a humble piece of domestic furniture: the wooden frame on which thin tenugui hand-towels are hung to dry. The shape and visual rhythm of the cloths on the rack are made to suggest sails, while the women interacting with them inhabit a domestic interior. The print depends on the careful color registration of nishiki-e, with subtle ground tones and patterned textiles arranged so that the wit of the substitution can be read clearly. The figures share the slender, doll-like proportions of Harunobu's Edo bijin-ga, and the composition rewards close inspection: every accessory in the room contributes to the joke as well as to the picture's surface beauty. The ukiyo-e.org record drawn from the Art Institute of Chicago's collection allows the design to be studied as part of one of Suzuki Harunobu's most inventive series, in which interior life and classical landscape converse on a single sheet.