Shellfish and Apparitions of the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter

Shellfish and Apparitions of the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter

Chōbunsai Eishi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This triptych of paintings by the noted Ukiyo e painter Eishi takes up the most unusual subject of scenes of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters as dream like apparitions emanating from shellfish. Reflecting the painter’s diverse training as a young man, the shellfish and plum branches are very much in Kano ink wash style, while the figures are in Ukiyo e polychrome. About 1785, after Eishi had given three years of service to the shogunate, he switched his artistic affiliation from the academic style to Ukiyo e, specializing in woodblock prints and paintings of courtesans. Most remarkably, the surrounding mounting silks of this triptych are inscribed with witty poems and popular songs related to Yoshiwara in the distinctive hand of the poet calligrapher and literary celebrity Ōta Nanpo, better known by his pen name Shokusanjin.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Shellfish and Apparitions of the Yoshiwara Pleasure QuarterShellfish and Apparitions of the Yoshiwara Pleasure QuarterShellfish and Apparitions of the Yoshiwara Pleasure QuarterShellfish and Apparitions of the Yoshiwara Pleasure QuarterShellfish and Apparitions of the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarter

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.