Hosoda Eishi
And His Graceful Portrayals Of Beautiful Girls.
Hosoda (Chobunsai) Eishi
(1756-1829) is one of the ukiyo-e artists who did not
stem from a townsmen’s family but from a samurai
(military nobility) one. He was the eldest son in the line
of the Hosoda, high-ranking samurai
in the service of the shogun (hatamoto). First he was
a pupil of the Kano painter Eisen-in Michinobu from
whose name he took the first character for his own artist
name and became court
painter in the service of the shogun Tokugawa Ieharu. When
he was about thirty, he dedicated himself entirely to the
art of the Floating World.
Limbless
Eishi’s first work shows
the influence of
> Kiyonaga
but later on he developed a style of his own that also
influenced his pupils, such as Eisho.
Like his later mentor
> Utamaro’s
work, Eishi was devoted principally to designs of girls,
whethercourtesans of the Yoshiwara or idealized maidens in
idyllic surroundings. His work shows a concious return to
classical themes and style, as can clearly be seen in his
series of triptychs illustrating the
> Genji
monogatari.
Neither Eishi nor his school ever designed other subjects
like this one or women’s portraits. In these they made
both ‘large-head’ portraits and full-size
figures which always show an extremely idealized
representation of women, enhanced by compositions which
avoid the cutting-off of a figure or even an off-centre
placing. Eishi is often thought to have
started the fashion in very long, elongated figures and
although we cannot be sure about this he certainly did
employ this manner of drawing, to the point where his women
very often appear nearly limbless.
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Fig.1. Hanamurasaki of the
Kado-Tamaya with apprentices,
c.1810’s.
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Elongation
The increasing elongation in
Eishi’s work was a style that disturbed many critics. They
call it abnormal and decadent, but which seems hardly worth
complaining about as long as the end result is beautiful.However, it is of interest to
compare the different aspects of this fashion for graceful
figures as drawn by Eishi and Utamaro. Utamaro is
universally conceded to be the greatest artist, yet as was
the case with Kiyonaga, we may find
ourselves loving the lesser artist the more. There is no
doubt, of course, that Kiyonaga, and later Utamaro, formed
the basis for Eishi’s style; yet in the final analysis an
Eishi print is a world apart from
these masters of the robust or the erotic.
True Aristocrats
For Eishi stands with
> Choki
as one of the true aristocrats of ukiyo-e; his work
may lack power but
never refinement or grace.
Despite his aristocratic upbringing (or as a commentary) the
prints of Eishi’s middle years concentrate more and more
on theYoshiwara courtesans, in particular showing them
in the diversified costumes
of their ceremonial parades (see Fig.1.) through the
entertainment quarter. He was also a master of erotica; his
shunga were only one extension of that dream-world he
depicted so often and so well (see
Fig.2.).
Fig.2. Contest of Passion in
the Four Seasons (Shiki kyoen zu), late 1790s to early
1800s, Summer.
Painted handscoll. Husband and wife are shown inside a
mosquito net.
(Michael Fornitz collection,
Copenhagen)
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Forgeries
Eishi’s principal activity
as an ukiyo-e painter extends over three decades, from the
1790s to his final years. Because of his genius and his ‘blue
blood’ origins, he was accorded far greater acclaim by
aristocrats than any other ukiyo-e
artist. Therefore his paintings are still extant in
considerable number today, although there are many
forgeries. It is fortunate for us that Eishi had the courage
necessary to abondon his noble heritage, renounce a
lifetime of tracing conventionalized landscapes of a China
he had never been seen and devote his artistic talents to
painting the subjects he himself treasured and understood
best.
Resources
Images from the Floating
World: The Japanse Print by Richard Lane.
Poem of the Pillow and Other
Stories by Gian Carlo
Calza.
Click here for more articles
on
> ukiyo-e
or check out our
> Japanese
Woodblock Gallery.
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