Hosoda Eishi (細田栄之) (artist late 1750s - late 1820s)
Party on the daifuku (大福) pleasure boat
ca 1796 – 1797
29.5 in x 15 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Eishi zu (栄之図)
Publisher: Izumiya Ichibei
(Marks 180 - seal 25-365)
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ritsumeikan (center panel b/w)
Ritsumeikan (left panel b/w)
Lyon - another fresher copy of this triptych
Ritsumeikan University - (right panel b/w)
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow - the left panel only
Metropolitan Museum of Art - Kiyonaga triptych from ca. 1785
Metropolitan Museum of Art - a different Eishi triptych from ca. 1792 A young man is entertained by seven young beauties on the daifuku pleasure boat. The seated one on the left has just caught a small fish.
Bibliography: Ukiyo-e taisei 7 (1931), #562; Brandt, Hosoda Eishi (1977), fig. 213, list no. 276; Ukiyo-e shūka 8 (1980), Eishi list, #71
Boating scenes with elegant courtesans are one of Eishi's favorite motifs. There are a number of other multi-panel prints, mainly triptychs, showing variations on this theme.
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Daifuku (大福) means great fortune or good luck. It is also what the first tea of the New Year is called. Perhaps this triptych represents a celebration of that event. However, the inclusion of the irises and the style of clothing would place this setting closer to the fifth month of the year.
Eishi's triptych appears to be based on a similar composition by Kiyonaga from ca. 1785.
beautiful women (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
Izumiya Ichibei (和泉屋市兵衛) (publisher)