Exchange of Gifts (Yuino), the second sheet of the series "Marriage in Brocade Prints, the Carriage of the Virtuous Woman (Konrei nishiki misao-guruma)"

Suzuki Harunobu's Exchange of Gifts (Yuino), the second sheet of his series Marriage in Brocade Prints, the Carriage of the Virtuous Woman (Konrei nishiki misao-guruma), is dated 1764 and held by the Art Institute of Chicago. The series narrates the stages of an ideal samurai-class marriage, with each sheet illustrating a separate ritual along the way. Yuino, the formal exchange of betrothal gifts, was a key moment in which two families publicly committed to the union. Harunobu stages the scene with the calm decorum appropriate to the subject, arranging figures around the presentation of carefully wrapped tokens and giving careful attention to the ceremonial accessories that defined the ritual. His handling of the figures is consistent with his Edo bijin-ga manner: small oval faces, narrow eyes, and elegant kimono whose patterning conveys both status and seasonal taste. The titular reference to nishiki, brocade, reflects his work in the same year on prints that helped lay the technical foundation for the full polychrome nishiki-e revolution of 1765. By naming the series for brocaded fabric, Harunobu emphasized both the textile richness expected at a samurai wedding and the increasingly luxurious palette of ukiyo-e woodblock printing itself. As part of the Art Institute of Chicago's Harunobu holdings, this sheet illustrates Suzuki Harunobu's role in bringing ceremonial and didactic subjects into the same refined idiom that he applied to courtesans and lovers, turning a step in marital protocol into a quietly observed visual narrative.