Sosei Hoshi / Mitate sanjurokkasen no uchi

Sosei Hoshi, the ninth-century priest-poet whose anthologised verse plays on flowers, parting, and the cherry tree, is the classical figure invoked here. The print belongs to Utagawa Kunisada's Mitate sanjurokkasen no uchi, a series in which thirty-six contemporary kabuki actors or beauties stand in for the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry. As with the rest of the set, Kunisada lets the modern figure dominate the sheet, while a poem-card cartouche carries one of Sosei Hoshi's most familiar waka and identifies the classical pairing. The conceit is characteristically Edo: a buyer at the print shop is meant to feel both the pleasure of recognising the poem and the contemporary thrill of seeing a current star or beauty cast as its embodiment. Kunisada's design language in such mitate-e is consistent with his mature yakusha-e: a single figure at three-quarter length, robes painted with the kind of dense, patterned brocade that his Utagawa workshop perfected, and quiet attention to face. By the date of issue, Kunisada was the head of the Utagawa school and the most productive designer of Edo ukiyo-e; mitate sets like this one demonstrate that he was as comfortable with classical reference as with theatre. The British Museum impression is documented and reproduced through ukiyo-e.org. Image and bibliographic data are courtesy of ukiyo-e.org.