Righteousness (Gi), from the series "Five Cardinal Virtues"

Righteousness (Gi), from the series Five Cardinal Virtues, dated 1767 in the Art Institute of Chicago, is one sheet from Suzuki Harunobu's polychrome interpretation of the Confucian virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. Rather than illustrate the abstract concept didactically, Harunobu personifies righteousness through a quietly observed exchange between two young women in contemporary Edo dress, leaving the moral content to be inferred. The design comes from the height of the nishiki-e era that Harunobu had helped to inaugurate, and the print's success depends on the precise registration of multiple blocks for skin, textile pattern, and ground tone. The figures share the slender proportions and refined gestures that define his Edo bijin-ga, and the setting reduces extraneous detail so that posture and gaze do the moral work. This blend of polite didacticism and fashion-conscious portraiture is exactly the niche in which Harunobu thrived, flattering customers who wanted prints that were elegant decoration and conversational object at once. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression preserves the disciplined color separations and unblemished paper that allow Suzuki Harunobu's design to be read at its intended pitch of subtlety, three years before the artist's death.