Fukurokuju, from the series "The Seven Gods of Good Luck in the Floating World (Ukiyo Shichi Fukujin)"

Suzuki Harunobu's "Fukurokuju," from the series "The Seven Gods of Good Luck in the Floating World (Ukiyo Shichi Fukujin)," dated 1764 in the Art Institute of Chicago's records, is a quintessential example of the artist's mitate-e instinct. Fukurokuju, the long-headed deity of wisdom and longevity traditionally shown as an old man with a tall, narrow skull, is here reimagined within the floating world of 1760s Edo, the series title announcing the conceit by yoking the Seven Gods of Good Luck (Shichi Fukujin) to ukiyo, the floating world of pleasure quarters and fashionable urban life. The slender body type, the small features, and the carefully patterned robes mark the figure as chuban bijin-ga, even where the iconography belongs to popular religion. As one of the foundational practitioners of nishiki-e, the polychrome "brocade print" technique that revolutionized Edo printmaking in the mid-1760s, Suzuki Harunobu used multiple precisely registered woodblocks to layer the soft palette that distinguishes the series. The chuban format keeps the deity intimate and collectible, suitable for assembling into a complete Seven Gods set. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves the impression as part of its substantial Harunobu holdings, where it stands as a model of how Edo ukiyo-e overlaid sacred tradition with the contemporary fashion of the floating world.