Background
In Naniwa (Osaka), the Fukumoto-zushi (福本すし) in Shinsaibashi was a sushi shop celebrated for its kokera-zushi (こけら寿司), a mixture of omelet, abalone, and sea bream that was pressed in layers in a wooden frame and made into cake-like shapes for hako-zushi (box-sushi). (Kokera means "fish chips" or thinly sliced fish.) The cakes were cut into small pieces for serving. This dish is depicted by Konobu I (補助小信, later Sadanobu II), son of Sadanobu I, in the inset at the top of the composition. His name is prefixed with the characters for hôga [small added picture by]. The Fukumoto-zushi was in business circa 1829-1944; it was succeeeded by the Motofuku-zushi in 1954.
Design
This design comes from the series Naniwa jiman meibutsu zukushi (Boasting of Osaka specialties fully enumerated: 浪花自慢名物尽). A beauty wearing colorful robes and a shijaku-mage hair style, holds a painted fan (signed "Konobu") in one hand while with the other she lifts the mosquito netting around her bedding. The "shijaku-mage" is named after the actor Iwai Shijaku and here, the long inscription includes a criticism of its merits.
The poem (the diagonal inscription nearest the woman's back), signed "Hansui," reads Sushi wa me no akete modoruya yuzikiyo (Only after I had eaten enough sushi did I go home in the moonlight).*
The vast majority of Osaka prints are of theatrical subjects. Thus there exist only a small number of bijinga (pictures of beauties: 美人画) in the Osaka printmaking canon. This series contains some of the few Osaka bijinga, made particularly interesting by the pairing of beauties with fashionable hairstyles and famous products in Osaka.
References: HSH, no. 173-10; HSK, no. 286 (*poem translated)
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