Second Illustration of Calligraphy and Painting Party on the Upper Floor of the Manpachiro Restaurant (Manpachiro jo shoga kaiseki no zu, onajiku sono ni)

This 1827 print by Utagawa Toyokuni, in the Art Institute of Chicago, records a calligraphy and painting party held on the upper floor of the Manpachiro restaurant in Edo. The Japanese title designates it as the second illustration of the gathering, suggesting it formed part of a sequential record. Such shoga kaiseki gatherings were important social events in late Edo cultural life, bringing together painters, calligraphers, poets, and patrons for collaborative work over food and drink. Toyokuni, as a leading figure in Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e), regularly participated in and depicted such circles, and his decision to design a commemorative print of one underscores how integrated commercial print culture and elite literary culture had become. The composition shows participants engaged in various stages of artistic production, with brushes, scrolls, and writing implements arranged across the picture plane. Toyokuni's drawing identifies individuals through pose and dress, allowing contemporary viewers to recognize specific personalities even without inscriptions. Compared to his bold [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e), this work is reportorial and conversational in tone, closer to a documentary print than a theatrical poster. Its survival in a major American collection makes it a valuable record of how Edo intellectual life was organized and how comfortably ukiyo-e designers moved between the kabuki theater, the painting studio, and the literary banquet.