Evening party at Shinagawa c. 1790

Editor: Here we have Utagawa Toyokuni I's "Evening Party at Shinagawa," a print from around 1790, residing at The Art Institute of Chicago. It feels quite intimate; we're given this voyeuristic glimpse into a private gathering. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It’s interesting to consider this not just as a genre scene, but also as a product of its specific material conditions. Ukiyo-e prints were a burgeoning commercial industry. Consider the woodblocks used - the type of wood, the labour involved in their carving, the multiple blocks needed for each colour... The skill was collaborative, artisanal. It brings to mind: who produced these pigments? Where were the paper pulp mills and workshops located, and who labored within? Editor: So, instead of just appreciating the image, we're thinking about the whole supply chain behind it. It's a commodity, right? Curator: Precisely! Look at the composition. This carefully constructed 'naturalness' implies not just the artist’s skill but the patron's wealth. The figures, fashionable and relaxed, are results of complex material and social processes. Each object: the shamisen, the lacquerware, the paper lantern—all symbols of refined leisure, yet dependent on specialized production, weren't they? Editor: That's a perspective I hadn't fully considered before. I was focused on the beautiful design and the story, not the socioeconomic underpinnings of its creation. Curator: The pleasure derived from viewing the print is, in effect, inseparable from recognizing how embedded art is with a system of consumption. How do you feel about its place in a modern museum today? Editor: It's almost paradoxical; this scene of leisurely consumption is now behind glass, divorced from its original context. Still, highlighting its materiality helps to bridge that gap, I think. Thank you. Curator: A pleasure, considering art as material culture opens it to broader meanings.