ARTICLES  -  INFO.

ANTIQUE - SHUNGA  -  EROTIC ART  -  PRINTS  etc.

  Back to SHUNGA Main Page.

  Back to INDEX Page.

  For free publication of this article see INDEX Page !

 

 

 

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.

 

Fig.1. Hanamurasaki of the Kado-Tamaya with apprentices, c.1810’s,

Fig.1. Hanamurasaki of the Kado-Tamaya with apprentices, c.1810’s.

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. (Michael Fornitz collection, Copenhagen)

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)

 

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.

 

 

Contact Us   or    Info Phone etc.

AK-Antiek

 Coevorden  ( The Netherlands )

 

  Back to SHUNGA Main Page.

For free publication of this article see Index Page 63

  Back to INDEX Page.

© 2009 - akantiek.com - All rights reserved - 02-12-2009