Brush: Lady Wei (Fude: Ei fujin), from the series "The Four Friends of the Writing Table for the Ichiyo Circle (Ichiyoren bunbo shiyu)"
- Date:
- c. 1827
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Brush: Lady Wei (Fude: Ei fujin) comes from Yashima Gakutei's [surimono](/glossary/surimono) series The Four Friends of the Writing Table for the Ichiyo Circle (Ichiyoren bunbo shiyu), dated to 1822 and held by the Art Institute of Chicago. The bunbo shiyu of the title - the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone - were the traditional four implements of the literati scholar in China and Japan, often personified through historical figures associated with each tool. Lady Wei (Wei Furen, in Japanese Ei fujin) was a fourth-century Chinese calligrapher who became the legendary teacher of Wang Xizhi and the canonical female embodiment of brushwork. The series therefore matches each writing implement to a famous personage, and the Ichiyo circle - the poetry club for which the set was commissioned - would have recognized the conceit immediately. Yashima Gakutei, a leading surimono designer within the Hokusai school under Katsushika Hokusai, shapes Lady Wei with the elongated dignity proper to a literati ancestor, balancing the figure against carefully reserved white space for the kyoka verses. The sheet uses the deluxe surimono techniques that define the genre at its peak: multiple impressions of mineral pigments, [karazuri](/glossary/karazuri) embossing of textiles, and burnished metallic powders that catch raking light. As a Yashima Gakutei kyoka-e in the Hokusai school manner, this print belongs to one of the most carefully programmed surimono sets of the early 1820s.
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
c. 1830/35
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Brush: Lady Wei (Fude: Ei fujin), from the series "The Four Friends of the Writing Table for the Ichiyo Circle (Ichiyoren bunbo shiyu)" was created by Yashima Gakutei (八島岳亭) in c. 1827.
Brush: Lady Wei (Fude: Ei fujin), from the series "The Four Friends of the Writing Table for the Ichiyo Circle (Ichiyoren bunbo shiyu)" depicts mount fuji.
