Mitate of the Chinese immortal Qin Gao

The story of Qin Gao (Kinkō Sennin), a legendary Taoist immortal reportedly of the Warring States period (c. 480–221 BCE) is a Chinese narrative with an established presence in Japanese visual imagery. According to Qin Gao’s biography in the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals (Liexian zhuan, attributed to Liu Xiang, 79–78 BCE), the immortal was known for mastery of the zither (Chinese: qin, which forms the first character of the immortal’s name). After studying the secrets of immortality and travelling for two hundred years, he jumped into Lake Zhou in search of dragons. He returned later to meet his disciples, rising out of the water on a giant red carp. Harunobu replaces Qin Gao with a beautiful courtesan who reads a love letter while riding a carp. Wearing an overgarment with snow-laden pines on top of a red kosode with a border design of bracken, she perches atop a fish that looks for all the world like a Boys’ Day carp banner (koi nobori). It is a mark of Harunobu’s brilliance as a designer that he successfully marries these elements of stylization and naturalism into a cohesive whole.