Although ukiyo-e
master > Hosoda Eishi (1756-1829) did not create any long-lived
schools; his pupils, though ephemeral, are among the most
fascinating secondary figures in ukiyo-e
history. His most important pupils are:
Chokosai Eisho (active
c.1789-1800)
No biographical data about
Eisho are recorded. He was a pupil of Hosoda Eishi and
worked in a style which closely resembles his master’s
but brings his idyllic beauties down to earth, endowing
them with a
certain robust element that
is reminiscent of both Kiyonaga and Utamaro. Like Eishi,
his subjects are mostly portraits of beautiful women, most
of them ‘large head’ portraits, in which the series >
‘A comparison of beauties of the Quarters’ is
especially noteworthy with its monumental heads against a
light or dark mica background.
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Eisho,
Title: ‘Shinataru of the Okamoto-ya’, 1790s.
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Eisho’s principal
innovations in technique were in the bust portraits of
beautiful girls. This artist’s women lack the
aristocratic refinement of Eishi’s, but they are
sometimes more human, more lifelike; the sweety childish,
slightly silly look on the faces of his courtesans
mirrors, perhaps unconciously, one strong element of
personality found in the Edo courtesan quarter.
He followed the fashion of
very elongated figures, which he used to great advantage
in his hashira-e (pillar prints) of which he designed more
than the other artists of the Eishi school. He once again
followed his
master
in style and subject with the Genji triptych.
Rekisentei Eiri (active
1790s)
Nothing is recorded about
Rekisentei Eiri. In fact, he is often identified as, and
confused with, Chokyosai Eiri (act. second half 1790s), a
pupil of Eishi, famous for his realistic portraits.
Stylistically it seems clear
that
they are two different artists.
His > depictions
of
girls are sometimes almost excessively fragile and
doll-like, yet on occasion their sumptuous charm
approaches that of Choki. In his sets of depicting lovers
and in his erotica, Eiri sometimes succeeds in creating a
mood
of romantic drama rather rare in ukiyo-e.
Some influence of Eishi may
be seen in Rekisentei Eiri’s work, but there is no
evidence that he was Eishi’s pupil. The character for Ei
in his name is written differently from the one used in
the Eishi school. Only
about
twenty designs by Eiri for prints are known, among which
some uki-e (perspective print), but they are
portraits of women for the most part.
Chokyosai Eiri (active
c.1789-1801)
Chokyosai Eiri is another
notable in the Eishi manner, famed for his rare portraits
and sumptuous shunga, which are sometimes confused with
the work of Eisho. His figures are characterized by a
solid, worldly
charm
and are rather more humanized than those of his
contemporaries other than > Choki.
Richard Lane on Eiri: “Why
all the fuss about Sharaku? Because he is so “mysterious”?
No, not at all: because he is such a good artist. But
Sharaku is not the only great yet enigmatic ukiyo-e
artist, and I propose to
resurrect here one of his important contemporaries who has
been all too long neglected: Chokyosai Eiri.
...As with many of the
notable ukiyo-e masters, nothing is known of Eiri’s
biography. All we can say is what we learn from his extant
prints and paintings: that he flourished during the second
half of the Kansei
Period
[1789-1801]; and that he was a direct pupil of the great
Eishi – who, being of eminent samurai stock, may well
have attracted pupils of similar background”.
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Chokyosai Eiri,
Series: ‘Models of
Calligraphy (Fumi no kiyogaki), c.1801.
Lesbian Couple
with harikata (dildo).
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Ichirakutei Eisui (active
1790s-1800s)
Eisui was one of the
principal pupils of Hosoda Eishi. Most of his designs show
bust portraits of women. His style, especially in his
monumental ‘large heads’, seems much more influenced
by Eisho than by his
teacher
Eishi, although a set of prints showing famous lovers
comes very close to Utamaro. Brandt takes his last work to
be the illustrations for a book of kyoka published
in 1823 (Brandt, p.223, C 49), but all of
his other known works (circa fifty prints) can be dated
before 1810.
Okubi-e
Eisui excelled occasionally
in portraying large heads of women. We should add that
these okubi-e (bust portraits), though they identify the
courtesan by name and address, are not really intended as
portraits but are
generalized pin-ups for the patrons or, more likely, the
would-be frequenters of the Yoshiwara. They bear even less
relation to the originals than our cinema posters do to
the film itself; yet they do convey a mood
and a certain stylized beauty, and we would certainly be
loath to trade them for the best realistic paintings or
photographs. They demonstrate the magic of ukiyo-e art,
which can distort reality and depart so
much from it and yet still express a sensitive human
beauty.
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Eisui, Title: ‘Yosoi of the
Matsubaya Cutting Flowers’,
c.1790s.
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