Asagao (Morning Glories), from the series Scenes from the Tale of Genji

Born into a high-ranking samurai family, Chōbunsai Eishi studied painting as a boy in the orthodox Kanō school of official painters to the shōgun and daimyō 大名 (regional lords). In the mid-1780s, however, he received permission to retire from his official duties and devote himself to ukiyo-eprints and paintings. In his early prints, like this one, his figures followed the style of Torii Kiyonaga.

Eishi often made parody pictures (mitate-e 見立絵), creating updated versions of classical themes. Here, the reference is to a chapter in the 11th-century novel The Tale of Genji. The hero, Genji, discovers a dilapidated mansion, and notices the faces of young women peeking at him through a fence, a scene he likens to a vine of morning glories. In this print, the figures are all in stylish, contemporary dress, but the morning glories that appear at the lower left, and a morning glory pattern on the screen behind the figures, give clues as to the subject.