About the Series Pictorial Siblings to The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Chūshingura e-kyōdai)

"Perhaps no artist was more prolific in reworking the Chūshingura story than Kunisada, who presented the tale as history, as biography, as a star vehicle for noted actors, and – as seen here – in irreverent parodies.  Playing with the venerated theme of warrior loyalty, this series juxtaposes moments of high drama from the tale of revenge with light-hearted activities in the daily lives of contemporary women.  The series was produced in 1859 when the printmakers’ craft was at a pinnacle.  New, more opaque pigments were available to produce saturated colors, and block carvers had achieved remarkable virtuosity in transferring the artist’s designs into woodblocks.  The embossing and hand-wiped shaded washes indicate that the series was printed as a deluxe edition." [Note: The series was also printed in a "standard" edition and variant printings for each print in the series exist.]

To read more about the representations of Chūshingura in woodblock prints see the article on this site Chūshingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers) in Woodblock Prints.