Japanese Woodblock Prints. Andreas Marks
“Act 8” (Hachi danme), from the series “Treasury of Loyal Retainers” (Chūshingura). Aiban. Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi. Library of Congress. Ukiyo-e shūka 3 (1978), no. 380.8.
Chōki
Act. c. 1780–1809
Family name: Momokawa. Artist names: Shikō, Chōki. Art name: Eishōsai.
Not many details are known about Chōki’s life. He is considered a student of Toriyama Sekien (1712–1788), possibly his adopted son. He went through a number of name changes and started his career as a print designer as Shikō. In the early 1780s he changed his artist name to Chōki, but used Shikō again between c.1796 and 1801, before returning to Chōki in the last years of activity. Both names indicate a different style, whereas works signed with Chōki are reminiscent of Torii Kiyonaga, Shikō signed works tend to be more like Utamaro but with a strong personal touch. Chōki produced mainly portraits of beautiful women and only a few actor prints that are stylistically similar to Sharaku’s. In the late 1780s he produced two chūban series, each related to the popular theme of the “Eight Views.” One illustrates the “Eight Views of Lake ōmi” (ōmi hakkei), the other juxtaposes the popular story “Treasury of Loyal Retainers” to the “Eight Views” and is titled thereafter “Eight Views of the Treasury of Loyal Retainers” (Chūshingura hakkei). Chōki also did “pillar prints” (hashira-e) and pictures of flowers and birds (kachō-e), and between 1789 and 1809, illustrated several books. It is known that he lodged with the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō, who produced most of his series. Other important publishers of the less than a dozen he worked for are Iwatoya Kisaburō and Tsuruya Kiemon.
Chōki’s last known works are illustrations in the book “Nakoso Gate” (Nakoso no seki) from 1809, written by Kanwatei Onitake (1760–1818).
Early 1800s “Clearing mist at Awazu” (Awazu seiran), from the series “Eight Views of Lake ōmi” (ōmi hakkei). Chūban. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Late 1790s “Act 7” (Shichidanme), from the series “The Treasury of Loyal Retainers” (Chūshingura). 12.5 x 12.8 cm (4.9 x 5 in.). National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Late 1790s “The courtesan Hinazuru and her attendants Tsuruji and Tsuruno from the Chōjiya” (Chōjiya uchi Hinazuru, Tsuruji, Tsuruno).. ōban. Publisher: Murataya Jirōbei. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Early 1800s Parable of good versus evil, guest in a brothel. (Right sheet of an untitled triptych). ōban. Publisher: Tsutaya Jūzaburō. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Shunman
1757–1820
Family name: Kubota, Kubo. Given names: Toshimitsu, Yasubei. Art names: Kōzandō, Sashōdō. Poet names: Issetsu Senjō, Nandaka Shiran, Shōsadō.
Kubo Shunman, born in 1757, was orphaned at an early age. He studied under Kitao Shigemasa as well as under the poet Katori Nahiko (1723–1782). Active from the 1770s, he created only a few commercial prints of elegant beautiful women and pictures of customs and manners (fūzokuga) in the style of Torii Kiyonaga. These women were often set in landscapes and published by Wakasaya Yoichi or Fushimiya Zenroku, who also published his most famous composition, an untitled hexaptych of women juxtaposed to the “Six Jewel Rivers” (mu tamagawa) of which one sheet is illustrated in the figure on the next page. Shunman was active as a painter and later specialized in surimono. He is said to be the first who employed the subject of still life. His earliest work, made in 1774, was a copy of a votive plaque by Nahiko.
Between 1779 and 1820, Shunman illustrated also a number of books, some of them erotic. Early in his career, from c.1779–84, he wrote and illustrated novels under the name Nandaka Shiran. He was a prolific poet and member of the poem clubs Bakuro-ren and Rokujuen. Originally, his poet name was Hitofushi Chitsue. After the death of the founder of the Bakuro-ren, Tsumuri no Hikaru, Shunman became the new leader and judge of the club. He abandoned designing commercial single-sheet prints in around 1790 and fully concentrated on kyōka surimono (crazy verse deluxe prints) to become their foremost designer. He wrote the poems for books illustrated by Katsushika Hokusai, Kitagawa Utamaro, and Hosoda Eishi. With over seventy extant paintings, Shunman was the most prolific painter of the Kitao school. He died, aged 64, on the 20th day of the ninth month 1820.
1812 The monkey Songokū from Journey to the West. 13.7 x 21 cm (5.4 x 8.25 in.). Library of Congress.
Late 1790s Snow on Mt. Koro. Fan print. Library of Congress.
1780s Far right panel from the first edition of an untitled hexaptych of women juxtaposed to the “‘Six Jewel Rivers’” (mu tamagawa). ōban. Publisher: Fushimiya Zenroku. Asian Art Museum, National Museums in Berlin. The complete hexaptych is illustrated in Genshoku ukiyo-e dai hyakka jiten, vol. 7, no. 193, p. 72.
Eishi
1756–1829
Family names: Fujiwara, Hosoda. Given names: Tokitomi, Yasaburō. Art names: Chōbun, Chōbunsai, Kaei, Dokuyū.
Eishi was born in 1756 into a high-ranking samurai family living from a generous stipend of 500 koku of rice. Eishi’s family belonged to the Fujiwara clan and their records went back to the tenth century. He was 15 or 16 years old when his father, Hosoda Tokiyuki (1737–1772), died and Eishi became the head of the family. In 1781, he received a position in the palace of the shogun, presumably within the department of keeping coloring materials.
It is not clear when and under which circumstances Eishi started to study painting. Apparently he first studied painting under Kanō Eisen’in Michinobu (1730–1790). Unusual amongst print artists, Eishi served the shogun Tokugawa Ieharu (1737–1786) who allegedly gave him his artist name Eishi. However, it seems more likely that Eishi received his name from his teacher Kanō Michinobu.
Presumably because of health issues, Eishi left his official position in 1784 but remained in the service of the shogun. He turned to print design and became the student of a certain Torii Bunryūsai (second half eighteenth century) about whom nothing else is known. His earliest work is dated from 1785. In 1789, Eishi retired from the service to the shogun and passed the leadership of the family on to his adopted son Tokitoyo. The reason for the change might lie in the new anti-luxury laws that were imposed at that time, aiming also at ukiyo-e.
Initially influenced by Kiyonaga, he became a rival to Utamaro and established his own school. Eishi specialized in idealized portraits of beautiful women in an elegant and refined style. The beauty prints were mainly issued in series, usually by the publishers Nishimuraya Yohachi or Iwatoya Kisaburō. The figure on the far right of the next page illustrates the series “Beauties of the Yoshiwara as Six Floral Saints” (Seirō bijin rokkasen), one of well over thirty series produced by Nishimuraya. Most of the prints by Eishi are in theōban format popular at that time, but there is also a small number of pillar prints.
During the short period when Eishi was active as a print designer,