# Women Beside a Stream Chasing Fireflies

**Chôbunsai Eishi** (Japanese, 1756–1829)  
c. 1796–97  
woodblock print; ink and color on paper  
Sheet: 38.8 x 25.4 cm (15 1/4 x 10 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1920.523. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1920.523).

## About this work

A group of women amuse themselves by chasing fireflies next to a stream. A sense of movement is conveyed by their sleeves fluttering in the breeze.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Chôbunsai Eishi designed this in about 1796–97, aged about 40. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### How it was made

- **Colour woodblock print.** In Japan these were a team effort. The artist drew the design, a carver cut it into cherry-wood blocks, one block for each colour, and a printer brushed on the pigment and rubbed each sheet by hand. Full-colour prints of this kind were called nishiki-e, “brocade pictures”, from the 1760s on.

### [Chôbunsai Eishi](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/chobunsai-eishi)

Japanese, 1756–1829

Eishi was born into a high-ranking samurai family and studied painting with the Kanō master Kanō Eisen’in, serving for a time as a painter to the shogun Tokugawa Ieharu. He then turned to ukiyo-e, and in the 1790s designed elegant pictures of tall, graceful courtesans and aristocratic women, often in multi-sheet compositions. Around 1800 he gave up woodblock design to concentrate on painting.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- The artist was about 40
- Real size: about 15 × 10 in (39 × 25 cm). The 12 × 16 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Movement: [Ukiyo-e](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/ukiyo-e)
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/502.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/502/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/women-beside-a-stream-chasing-fireflies-cma-101861).