Distant View of Mt. Asama from Urawa Station, c.1950
Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) was given the name Zenjiro when he was born in Edo, a child of a noted calligrapher and poet. His father taught him to paint and later he was apprenticed to a Kano style painting master, Hakkeisai (active in the late 1700s-early 1800s). After his father's death, he trained under the leading bijin-ga master of the day, Kikugawa Eizan, learning ukiyo-e. After some initial publications, much in his master's romanticized style, Eisen found his own approach in the early 1820s. As a painter and printmaker, he followed in his teacher’s steps specializing in prints of bijin-ga, beautiful women, although he produced a number of prints in a variety of genres.
The finest pieces of Eisen are striking and highly original art works, often more highly valued than those of his contemporaries. His works contain voluptuousness and ripe sensuality, with the figures lacking grace, but emphasizing worldliness and a less disguised sexuality. Eisen produced an incredible number of series of bijin-ga prints, as well as erotica, some important and original landscape sets, surimono and a number of humorous prints or giga, the best of them emphasizing children.
Two Turtles and Carp
with Duckweeks, 1820s
Harimaze print: Snowy
landscape; Bonito Fish
Head and Two Rats;
Tadpoles and Mizuhiki, 1830s
Eisen was also a prolific artist and writer, far more disciplined and striving than the legend he sought to create about his life suggests. He researched and wrote under the name Ippitsuan, the biographies on Kuniyoshi’s series of the forty-seven ronin, as well as several books, including a continuation of the Ukiyo-e Ruiko. Despite this he described himself as a reckless drinker and frequenter of the brothels, focusing his life on pleasure of the moment (as evident in his autobiography "Notes of a Nameless Old Man").
Keisai Eisen, like many ukiyo-e artists, was apt to overproduce, leading at times to a reduced quality of his prints. Even so, a large number of his prints are of stunning beauty and high quality.
A Courtesan Reading a Letter Beside a Paper Lantern--Parody of Omu Komachi (Parrot Komachi), 1830s
Series: Nana Komachi (Seven Komachi) Parody of the legendary theme of the poetess Ono no Komachi who lived in the ninth century. Komachi is supposed to have been very brilliant and beatiful. She ws skilled in the art of conversation and was ingenious in her poetry. The Emperor Yozei (868-949 A.D.) was fond of poetry. He sent his counsellor to Komachi with a poem hoping to receive a reply. Komachi had become an aged nun called Omu Komachi. Omu Komachi changed a single syllable of the Emperor's poem. She substituted the interogative word ya to the affirmative word zo and sent it back as a "parrot-like answer. "Kumo no ue wa arishi mukashi ni kawaranedo Mishi tamadare no ushi (zo) yukashiki." (At the court everything is now unchanged, as in olden times; but I still long for all that I have seen behind.
The Courtesan Mutamakawa Drying Her Washed Hands, 1830s
Series: The Mutamagawa (The Six Tama Rivers). The print is a fanciful transformation of Chofu no Tamagawa, one of the Six Tama Rivers. There are six rivers with the same name, Tamagawa, in different provinces. Each river is associated with a peom. The Six Tama Rivers became a popular theme in Edo period art. The six rivers are: Chofu no Ramagawa in Musashi province; Ide (or Hagi) no Tamagawa in Yamashiro province; Koya no Tamagawa in Kii province; Michima (or Kinuta) no Tamagawa in Settsu province: Noda (or Chidori) no Tamagawain Mutsu province; and Noji no Tamagawa in Omi province. The framed picture in the upper right shows a scene of tazukuri (woven cloth used to pay a tax) drying by the Tama river in Musashi province.
Kanadegon Chushingura Act V: Scene on Yamazake Road, 1830's
A famous Chushingura scene on Yamazaki road. The villain Ono Sadkuro murders Okaru's father Yoichibei who carries the large sum of money which he had received for selling his daughter Okaru as a courtesan to a brothel. Okaru's husband Kanpei, who is out hunting, runs into the retainer of Hangan called Senzaki Yogoro. Senzaki and Kanpei are shown in the background on the left side of the print. Kanpei learns from Yogoro that Yuranosuke is raising an army of ronin and funds to avenge their former master Hangan's death. Shortly after the scene depicted in this print, Kanpei mistakingly shoots the thief Sadakuro thinking that his was a wild boar. Kanpei finds the money purse and returns home without knowing that Sadakuro had previously killed Yoichibei.
The following images are from the series Kanadehon Chushingura (Model of the Kana Syllabary: the Forty-seven Loyal Retainers)
Kanadehon Chushingura Act VI: Kanpei's Suicide at the House of Yoichibei, 1830s
The proprietress of Ichiriki brothel, comes to Yoichibei's home to fetch Okaru (in the palanquin). Kanpei learns that the purse of coins, which he had taken from the dead body of the man whom he had accidentally shot on the road was the money paid by the brothel for Okaru. When Yoichibei's dead body is brought home Kanpei begins to fear that the man he had shot was Yoichibei. He is unjustly accused as the Yoichibei's murderer by Yoichibei's wife (mother of Okaru) seen beside the palanquin. Kanpei (seen in the house) commits seppuku (disenbowlment) in front of Okaru's mother and Senzaki Yogoro (seen on the opposite bank of stream) who has come to pick up the money to be used for the vendetta. The wounds on Yoichibei's body do however very soon prove to the family.