Cover Page

The handle https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3195081 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation.

Author: Takemura, S. Title: Style and function of female images in prints by Keisai Eisen (1790–1848): Ideals of beauty and gender in the Late Edo Period consumer society Issue Date: 2021-07-15

Chapter One

Eisen: An Overview of His Career, His Oeuvre, and His ʻMarket’

Several modern ukiyo-e scholars have conducted important analysis and investigations into Eisen and his works. Hayashi Yoshikazu has scrutinized Eisen’s erotic artworks (shunga 春画) in collaboration with Katsushika Hokusai and Hokusai’s daughter

Oei 阿栄 (also known as Katsushika Ōi 葛飾応為, act. 1801‒1854) in Oei to Eisen: Enpon kenkyū 阿栄と英泉：艶本研究.11 Ōsawa Makoto undertook a detailed, comprehensive study of Eisen’s artistic life in the post-war era, in his Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉 of 1976, but little investigation has subsequently been conducted on the artist’s individual works.12 Akai

Tatsurō 赤井達郎 has shed light on the close collaboration between the popular writer- publisher Shunsui and Eisen with an eye toward the possible influence that Shunsui might have had on the design of Eisen’s female images. Since Akai does not demonstrate any visual examples of Eisen’s bijin-ga, I would like to explore if and how Eisen’s bijin-ga have actual influence of Shunsui’s ideas and writings about women. The first substantial one-man show on Eisen and his works took place in 1997 at the Ōta kinen bijutsukan 太田記念美術館 (Ōta

Memorial Museum of Art).13 The most recent museum exhibition to thoroughly focus on

Eisen’s art was organized in 2012 by the Chiba City Museum of Art. The comprehensive exhibition catalogue that accompanied the show demonstrates that Eisen not only excelled at

11 Hayashi, Oei to Eisen: Enpon kenkyū. 12 Ōsawa Makoto ⼤沢まこと, Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉 (Tokyo: Ikugeisha, 1976). 13 Ōta Ukiyo-e Kinen Bijutsukan. Keisai Eisen ten: Botsugo 150-nen kinen 溪斎英泉展: 没 後 150 年記念. (Tōkyō: Ōta Kinen Bijutsukan, 1997).

37 female images but was also a versatile artist in various ukiyo-e genres. More recently,

Matsuda Misako 松田美沙子 has also contributed to the study of Eisen, comparing his bijin- ga to that of the contemporaneous ukiyo-e designer, Utagawa Kunisada.

These previous studies tend to situate Eisen’s bijin-ga within his own oeuvre production or in comparison to other artists, mostly in terms of aesthetic and stylistic developments. My research builds on these past studies, but as noted in my Introduction, I will cast a wider net and examine Eisen’s role in developing what I see as a new type of female image appearing in the bijin-ga of the late Edo period within the wider socio- historical context of the time. To do this, I will be investigating other urban cultural/entertainment entities that were flourishing at the time alongside ukiyo-e— popular fiction, kabuki theatre, travel, and most of all, the sex trade.

As noted, Eisen’s bijin-ga prints are classified as works of “decadent style” (taihaiha

頽廃派) by early modern scholars looking back at his output of a hundred years earlier. As early as 1925, the Japanese art-historian Ozaki Kyūya 尾崎久弥 (1890-1972) published a monograph on Eisen’s bijin-ga in his 1925 book Ukiyo-e to taihaiha 浮世絵と頽廃派

(Ukiyo-e and the Decadent School). Ozaki took a moralistic approach to Eisen’s output and equates the artist’s “erotic” female images decadence (taihai 頽廃) in contrast to the ideal bijin-ga produced a half century earlier. For Ozaki, Utamaro’s bijin-ga demonstrate the

“beauty of maternal figures” (bofu no bi 母婦の美), while Eisen’s bijin-ga express the

“beauty of prostitutes” (shōfu no bi 娼婦の美).14 Ozaki observes:

14 Ozaki, Ukiyo-e to taihaiha, 40.

38 . . . 歌麿は、女性美に、玩弄的な不神聖な意味よりも、寧ろ、神聖化してこれ

を描いていると思ふに反し、英泉は、女性を全く反宗教的なる性の具有者と

して、これを汚瀆し易きものとして描いている。その描法も描かれた顔貌

も、歌麿は餘りに非人間的であるに対し、英泉は最も人間的である。15

. . . In his depictions of women Utamaro appreciated female beauty not so much in

terms of them being playthings or impure, but rather as sacralized. By contrast, Eisen

depicted women as equipped with completely anti-religious sexuality and easily

corruptible. While in Utamaro’s drawing style their faces are not human at all, with

Eisen they are very human.

However, it is noteworthy that many of Utamaro’s works also depict courtesans and sex workers. It can be argued that Ozaki was troubled by Eisen’s depiction of female images in active poses with facial expressions and gestures expressing overtly sensuous feelings that he deemed not to be within the ukiyo-e paradigm, thus contributing to the quality of “decadence”

(taihai).16

Eisen’s so-called “decadent prints” do not portray decorous or graceful female figures. Rather, they appear bold, casual, and sensuous, even salacious when their motifs and inscriptions are fully deciphered. Figure 4 and Figure 5 are representative examples of what modern scholars of the early twentieth century would deem as “decadent prints” by Eisen.

Two generations of ukiyo-e studies later, they were still classified as such when they were

15 Ibid., 38–39. 16 Akai Tatsurō 赤井達郎, Ukiyo-e ni okeru Kasei – Keisai Eisen – 浮世絵における化政 渓 斎英泉, in Kasei bunka no kenkyū—Kyoto daigaku jinbunkagaku kenkyū hōkoku 化政文化 の研究 京都大学人物学研究報告, ed. Tatsusaburō Hayashiya (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1976), 8.

39 included in the 1965 Kōki ukiyo-e 後期浮世絵 (Ukiyo-e of the late Edo), one of the first major, and most influential, postwar publications to reproduce late Edo-period nishiki-e prints. It was compiled by Oka Isaburō and Suzuki Jūzō and published in English translation in 1969 under the title The Decadents.17 The suggestive title has influenced Western perceptions of late Edo-period bijin-ga ukiyo-e up to the present day.

17 Isaburō Oka and Suzuki Jūzō. The Decadents (Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco: Kodansha International/USA, Ltd, 1969).

40

Figure 4. Keisai Eisen. Suzaki Benten 洲崎弁天（Suzaki Benten Shrine）, from the series Ada kurabe ukiyo fūzoku 仇競浮世風俗 (Competition of Beauties); early 19th century. Reproduction taken from Kōki ukiyo-e (1965) by Oka Isaburō and Suzuki Jūzō.

41

Figure 5. Keisai Eisen. Satsuki 五月(Fifth Month),” from the series Ukiyo bijin jūnikagetsu 浮世美人十二箇月(Tewlve Beauties for Twelve Month); early 19th century. Reproduction taken from Kōki ukiyo-e (1965) by Oka Isaburō and Suzuki Jūzō.

To learn how today’s critical consensus that Eisen, along with Kunisada and

Kuniyoshi, be classified into this so-called “decadent” school of ukiyo-e, we have to go back to the post-Victorian era of the early twentieth century, a time when Japan’s modernizing reformers were desperate to achieve parity with the West as a “civilized” society. They took their cue from the West on what it means for a country to be “civilized” (no prostitution), forgetting that Japan already has a long history of civilization and culture. Indeed, Japan’s cultural traditions date back hundreds of years, longer than most nation-states of Europe, and

42 certainly of America. In the Japanese context, these early reformers were continuing the work of the Meiji Restoration of 1868, to liberate Japan from the old feudal order of the Edo.

It should be pointed out that Ozaki’s perception of late Edo-period bijin-ga is partly based on an attitude towards sex that was largely influenced by newly introduced Western mores. The Enlightenment campaign in eighteenth-century France led to new ideas on family that challenged long-established attitudes and customs. Traditionally, the “family” meant the

“line,” the chain of descendants who each in turn held title to estate, properties and privileges in the family name. Marriage was a legal contract negotiated between heads of families, whether kings or wealthy peasants, not between the bridal couple.18

Carol Duncan argues that these modern bourgeois values were based on

Enlightenment ideals of conjugal love and family harmony,19 in which “sexual gratification, marriage and parenthood come in a single package suitable for elevated tastes.”20 In other words, the importance of women’s chastity focusing on conjugal love and family harmony became newly important in the West starting in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century.

Although chastity and patriarchal family model was also Confucian, the idea of love marriage was new to Japan. Such attitudes had entered Japan by the early nineteenth century, the time of Eisen. Tadano Makuzu 只野真葛 (1763–1825),21 for example, wrote Hitori kangae 独考 (Solitary Thoughts, 1818), and one of the topics is love marriage. As a daughter

18 Carol Duncan, Happy Mothers and Other New Ideas in Eighteenth Century French Art in Feminism and art History Questioning the Litany, ed. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (Boulder, CO and United Kingdom: Westview Press, 1982) 201‒219, esp. 204. 19 Ibid., 210. 20 Ibid., 212. 21 Tadano Makuzu was the daughter of Kudō Heisuke 工藤平助 (1734–1801), a doctor in the Sendai domain and a critic of economy and society, wrote a well-known treatise on Russia, Akaezo fūsetsukō 赤蝦夷風説考 (Report on the Land of the Red Ainu [Russia], 1783).

43 of a doctor and a scholar of Western learning, known as rangaku 蘭学 (Dutch studies),

Tadano introduces a description of marriage in Russia, which she probably learned about from the rangaku scholars Sugita Genpaku 杉田玄白 (1733–1817) and Maeno Ryōtaku 前野

良沢 (1723–1803), who were both associated with her father. She explains that marriage in

Russia occurs after both man and woman agree and pledge to marry; a marriage is acknowledged when agreed upon by both sides and any sexual contact outside marriage is a serious sin. In Tadano’s eyes, marriage in Russia is much more reasonable and humane for both parties. “Equal” marriage rights for men and women were guaranteed in law, at least in

Russia and other Western societies.22 While Tadano’s case is special as she was born into an intellectual samurai family, these patriarchal ideas on marriage and the importance of women’s chastity were taken up and incorporated into the writings of modern late nineteenth- century educators such as Mori Arinori (1847‒1889), a member of the Ministry of Education in the cabinet of the prime minister, Itō Hirobumi (1841‒1909). Mori was known as a thinker of the Japanese Enlightenment and who argued against the long Japanese tradition of concubinage outside of marriage.23 Even today, Japanese attitudes surrounding sex and marriage seemingly still remain largely grounded in this model of post-Victorian moral values at least for official pretext, and continue to exert influence the country’s policy-makers and researchers.24

The social position of women, as well as ethical attitudes towards sex, were critical issues in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Japan strove for parity with

22 Seki Tamiko 関民子, Edo kōki no joseitachi 江戸後期の女性たち (Tokyo: Aki shobō, 1980), 18.

23 William Reynolds Braisted, Meiroku Zasshi: Journal of the Japanese Enlightenment (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1976.), 104‒105. 24 Yoko Tokuhiro, Marriage in Contemporary Japan (London & New York: Routledge), 55.

44 the West and international recognition as a modern nation in terms of its human rights record.

The social position of Japanese women had been a target of criticism by Western imperial powers which justified their keeping of unequal treaties on the basis that Japan was an uncivilized country as women were confined by law and practice to almost total subservience to men and even deprived of liberty as evidenced by shameful official brothel quarters like

Yoshiwara.

It was the María Luz Incident of 1872 that triggered Japan to take action on the social position of women, especially prostitutes. A number of Chinese workers had escaped from a

Peruvian boat which that was anchored at Yokohama. The workers had been exploited by

Peruvian their plantation owners and were saved rescued by the crew of a British warship.

Japan rendered a decision that the Peruvian boat was involved in the slave trade. However,

The Peruvian side protested that Japan was guilty of the same sin as evident in the many flourishing pleasure quarters throughout the country. Prostitution was banned in Japan by

1872 in a decree called Shōgi kaihō rei 娼妓解放令, but it was not until this protest that the

Japanese government strictly enforced liberation of people in servitude, especially of courtesans and prostitutes.25 This incident was perhaps the first experience for Japan to be judged on the basis of ethics and human rights in the international arena. The treatment and position of women became an important measuring stick for gauging how “civilized” a country was. the civilization of a country. As a result of this incident, women’s rights became one of the most crucial problems that Japan had to address to achieve equal standing with the

West in modern international society.

25 Sōgo joseishi kenkyūkai 総合女性史研究会. Shiryō ni miru nihon josei no ayumi 資料 にみる日本女性のあゆみ. (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan. 2000). 137.

45 The problem of how to present Japan to the world as a modern nation with an admirable culture and civilization continued to vex Japanese reformers as well as foreign sympathizers at the start of the early twentieth century. Foreign admirers of things Japanese spent years living and studying in the island nation and reported back to the West—Japan is a law-abiding society with a long history of culture and civilization. One of them, the

American Earnest Fenollosa (1853–1908), established modern Japanese art history based on

Western criteria and methodology. In 1907, the Ministry of Education (Monbushō 文部省) established the annual art exhibition known as the Monbushō Bijutsu Tenrankai 文部省美術

展覧会 (Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition), shorten to Bunten 文展, which showcase the achievements of contemporaneous artists. In 1915, at the ninth Bunten, one gallery was devoted only to works of bijin-ga that showcased the “new type of ideal women” as a symbol of the nation’s civilized and cultured character.”26 Artists of the time, including practitioners of Nihon-ga 日本画 (Japanese-style painting) such as Uemura Shōen 上村松園

(1875–1949) and Kaburaki Kiyokata 鏑木清方 (1878–1972), drew from the styles, motifs, and compositions of Edo-period ukiyo-e bijin-ga to design modern bijin-ga that were accepted for display.27 The genre of modern bijin-ga thus became established as a symbol of

Japan as a modern civilized nation with beautiful, well-dressed and well-coiffured women. It is intriguing to wonder if Eisen’s bijin-ga would have made the grade by the Japanese cultural elite vetting entrants to the Bunten. If we are to judge from Ozaki’s 1925 definition

26 Hamanaka Shinji 濱中真治, “Kindai Nihon ni miru bijin-ga to bijin hyōgen” 近代日本に 見る美人画と美人表現, in The Female Image: 20th Century Prints of Japanese Beauties (Tokyo: Abe Publishing Ltd. and Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000),13.Also see Croissant, Doris “From Madonna to Femme Fatale: Gender Play in Japanese National Painting,” in Performing “Nation”: Gender Politics in Literature, Theater, and the Visual Arts of China and Japan, 1880–1940, ed. Doris Croissant, Catherine Vance Yeh, and Joshua S. Mostow (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008), 266.

27 Ibid.

46 of Eisen’s bijin-ga as demonstrating the “beauty of prostitutes” as opposed to Utamaro’s bijin-ga as “beauty of maternal figures,” the answer is an emphatic “no.” Eisen’s female images would have been deemed morally and visually unqualified to be a symbol of Japan as a civilized nation. Throughout the most of the twentieth century, Japanese scholars, following in the footsteps of the county’s elites at large, persisted in giving low marks to the aesthetic and cultural worth of Eisen’s perhaps due to its overt eroticism. This prejudice seems to be directly related to the modern moralistic (i.e., Victorian) views toward women and sex that appeared on the Japanese scene after she became a “modern” nation.

Even now, well into the beginning of the twenty-first century, scholars of ukiyo-e still refer to prints produced in the late Edo period by such artists as Eisen as “decadent” (taihai- teki). This perception was perpetuated in the most recent exhibition devoted to the work of

Keisai Eisen held at the Chiba City Museum of Art in 2012.28 In the preface to the catalog, the museum director Kobayashi Tadashi writes that Eisen, is a representative ukiyo-e artist of the Decadent school (taihaiha 頽廃派).”29 His statement represents the generally accepted understanding of Eisen’s bijin-ga. Interestingly, Kobayashi amusingly questions if the perception of Eisen stays the same after experiencing this exhibition because30 Tanabe

Masako, the chief curator of the exhibition obviously attempts to study Eisen not as an artist of the decadent school but as a commercial artist who is versatile and productive, able to produce his works in many different styles according to the requests and demand in the first half of nineteenth century. In other words, Eisen remains categorized as a heterodox artist of overtly sensuous-looking female images that have not been deserving of mainstream

28 Chiba City Museum of Art, ed. Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉 (Chiba: Chiba City Museum of Art, 2012) Exhibition catalogue. 29 Kobayashi Tadashi 小林忠, “Keisai Eisen shikan” 渓斎英泉私感, in Keisai Eisen 渓斎英 泉, ed. Chiba City Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Chiba: Chiba City Museum of Art, 2012), Exhibition catalogue, 11. 30 Ibid.

47 recognition. This is a status he did not have in his own time, as he was successful and sought- after designer of bijin-ga.

Interpreting the Contents of Eisen’s Mumei-ō zuihitsu : Early Training, Artistic Versatility, and Contemporaneous Influences

In his time, Eisen was a success story and he lays claim to this in the entry he wrote about himself in his Mumei-ō zuihitsu. There are very few historical records available to us on most ukiyo-e artists, due primarily to their low standing in Tokugawa society. As such,

Eisen’s pre-modern “bio blurb” in the Mumei-ō zuihitsu is a rare and precious historical document. My translation below of this manuscript offers for the first time, in Eisen’s own words, a full account of his origins, his character, his artist training, his challenges in life, and his achievements in art, particularly in the realm of bijin-ga. Eisen’s autobiographical account in Mumei-ō zuihitsu offers vital clues about who he was, the type of artist he was, and how he wished to be regarded. This manuscript can be regarded as a last testament by

Eisen to ensure that history will remember him as an artist of samurai origin equipped with proper artistic skills, intelligence, culture, and knowledge, particularly knowledge of the demimonde and its many sensual pleasures which are essential for trendy ukiyo-e artists, the connoisseur of sub-culture.

Eisen wrote the Mumei-ō zuihitsu in the third person under the pen name Mumei-ō 无

名翁 (literally, “old man with no name”) 31 in 1833, when he was forty-two years old. The resulting Mumei-ō zuihitsu also contains biographical and artistic information about ukiyo-e

31 Eisen was also known as Kokushunrō (国春楼), Koizumi (小泉), Ippitsuan Kakō (一筆庵 可候), Fusen Ichiin (楓川市隠), Mumei-ō (无名翁), Insai Hakusui (淫斎白水), Inransai (淫 乱斎), Hokutei (北亭), Hokkatei (北花亭), and Chiyoda Saishi (千代田才市).

48 artists from various eras. Eisen compiled his Who’s Who in ukiyo-e, sort of to speak, largely based on an earlier text, the Ukiyo-e ruikō, 浮世絵類考 (Miscellaneous Thoughts on Ukiyo- e). This earlier text was co-written in 1802 by the leading kyōka 狂歌 (“mad verse”) poet Ōta

Nanpo 大田南畝 (1749–1823) and others, including Santō Kyōden 山東京伝 (also known as

Kitao Masanobu 北尾政演, 1761–1816)32. For this reason, Eisen’s 1833 Mumei-ō zuihitsu is also commonly referred to as the Zoku ukiyo-e ruikō 続浮世絵類考 (Thoughts on Ukiyo-e,

Continued). Both the Ukiyo-e ruikō and the Mumei-ō zuihitsu or Zoku ukiyo-e ruikō are invaluable Edo-period documents for the study of ukiyo-e. The also latter demonstrates

Eisen’s talents as a writer and scholar, skills that he apparently practiced in his lifetime but is little mentioned today, because little from his pen seems to have survived or been identified.

Eisen narrates in his autobiography that in addition to illustrating erotica (he specifically mentions shunga 春画[erotic pictures], kōshokubon 好色本[erotic books], and makura bunko

枕文庫 [pillow books] ) and popular books (he specifically mentions kusazōshi 草双紙

[popular books], chūbon 中本 [medium-sized reading books], and yomihon 読本 [reading books]), he “excelled at depiction of courtesans and “portraying the style of customs and manners specific to each brothel” and pioneered a new style of bijin-ga (not his rival

Kunisada). He boasts that his fame was such that he attracted pupils and his ukiyo-e production reached markets in Osaka and Kyoto. For today’s scholar, the Mumei-ō zuihitsu is an important primary source offering an intimate view into the life of a representative ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo period, helping to shed light on the business and profit-making aspects of that popular genre and the motivations and aspirations of its successful producers. The full

Japanese text of his autobiographical entry in the Mumei-ō zuihitsu is followed by my line-

32 The gesaku author Shikitei Sanba 式亭三馬 (1776–1822) and the historian Saitō Gesshin 斎藤月岑 (1804–1878) also added information to the Ukiyo-e ruikō.

49 by- line English translation:

英泉 文化文政より天保にいたる

俗稱 善次郎後里介 居住江戸数カ所に轉宅して住所不定始番町後根岸新 田村 姓 藤原本姓池田氏江戸産池田氏男也 名 義信一に茂義 號 渓斎 一號一筆庵 別號 无名翁 可候 戯作の名なり戯作の草双紙中本春畫本等あり

始め幼年の頃狩野白桂斎の門人となりて畫を学ぶ（白桂斎は赤松某候と云 へり、狩野栄川法印の高弟也）、後獨立して浮世絵をかけり（國春樓又北 亭と云えり）、靑雲の志ありて仕官にありしが壮年にして流浪す、従来宋 明の唐畫を好み書を讀の一癖あり、通宵眠る事を忘る、戯作を樂みとして 近世草双紙中本春畫好色本を多くだせり（薄彩色摺の春畫に工風せり畫作 の枕文庫勝れて行われたり、）當事流行の繪風に倣て浮世美人を多く畫き 一時大いに世に行われたり、北斎翁の畫風を慕ひ畫則骨法を受て後一家を なす、 靑樓（新吉原を云）遊女の姿を寫すに委く、其家々の風俗襖姿を畫 くに役者の狂言振に似せず、時世の形體を新たに畫しは此人に起れり、近頃 國貞も傾城畫は英泉の寫意に似せて畫し者也、役者畫はかゝず浮世繪師の 見識を慕しと見ゆ、草双紙合巻中本繍像 讀本数十部を畫く、此人僅文化の 末より文政の間大いに行われたれども、筆する所の讀本錦畫夥敷板刻せり （ 團扇畫も多し近世藍摺の錦畫は此人の工風より流行す）、京大坂の書肆よ り讀本多く出板す、三都の刻本を江戸に在住して畫しは北斎と此人のみ也、 門人も多くありし

[中略]

略傳に云、一筆庵英泉は星岡の産也、父母存在の中は遠不出（父は池田茂 睛、援山不言斎の門人にて書を能す讀書を好み俳諧を嗜み千家の茶の湯を 樂しむ、不白杯と友なり）、母は泉六歳の時歿す、継母なりしが更に其心 なく双親に仕て至孝なり尤家貧しかりけり、文化の始め父は歿し母は冬歿 す、幼き妹三人を養育せしに？者の舌頭にかゝり流浪の人となる、水野家 に血脈多くして撫育せられしが世のなりゆきを歎じ志を廢して浮世繪師と なれり、戯塲狂言作者初代篠田金治（後並木五瓶也）の門に入、千代田才 市の名を續て作者となりしが再畫工菊川英二が家に寓居す（英二は叡山の 實父也 其頃英山行れて諸侯の召に應じ彩色畫多くありしが、肥州候命ぜ られ門人不殘の畫を集給ふ其列に入て英泉と畫名をしるし出させしより是 を名とす、英山門人と云ふ始めなり）元より名を不好飄々として住所を不 定、醉るが如く凧を畫き羽子板幟繪彩り需に従て辭するとなし（此頃凧を

50 畫くものは一日二百文なりしを英泉七匁五分づつ取しなり、是より以後他 人も今に至て三匁と定利子と云、職分筆の達者の人は二人分をなす）、板 刻の畫を半かきて行所を知らず、發客迷惑して行所を尋レバ娼門酒樓に酔 て死せるが如し、漸に其後を畫て是を與ふ、芝金杉の濱に碇屋六兵衛と云 し魚問屋有（是後に巴屋仁兵衛と云る板元なり）、此人従来錦繪其外の板 元を業とする事を好むが故に、泉を携えて家に養ふ、泉衣類を供見して出 て不歸、主人漸に行所知て尋れば人の衣類を酒食に換て酔て本性なし、 虎鰒を生ながら蝶と共に煎て是を喰ひ、猪を好て喰し羽織を着し下駄を はき、近邊出しと思へば夜船に乗じて上總木更津に至る（木更津より五里 程入周瑳郡に池田氏の苗家あればなるべし）、かゝる放蕩無頼の人と いへども更に是を不惡人衆の板元のすゝめにより居を新橋宗十郎町に定め たり、食客を集て畫夜門に錠を不用、家主後難を恐れて大いに、迷惑す、 如此の行状なれども親族他人に金銀を少しも不借、只己が業により其 あたへを取て捨る如くに遣ふのみ、其後妻をむかへ子無がゆへに一 女子を養ふ、是より後人に歸りて板刻の繪に精を抽て夜を不寝畫夜門外に不 出、拾有餘年の間彫刻發市の繪本錦繪衆人に勝れて筆する事夥く世に 發 市す、爰にをいて一家をなし門人を多く置て業とするに、苦心して志をとげ ず遺㑘 と云べし、因に是に記す33

“ Eisen (act. Bunka-Bunsei to Tenpō era).

Common names (zokushō): Zenjirō; later Risuke.

Address: Lived in several areas in the city of Edo; the first known address is Negishi

Nittamura in the city of Edo [present-day Taitō-ku].

Family Name (sei): Fujiwara; Original Family Name: Ikeda (males born in the Ikeda

family in the city of Edo).

Given Names (na): Yoshinobuichi and Shigeyoshi.

Art Names (gō): Keisai; Another Art Name: Ippitsuan.

Other Art Names (betsu gō): Mumei-ō; Kakō.34

33 Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉, “Mumei-ō zuihitsu” 無名翁随筆 (1833) in Nihon gadan taikan ge 日本画談大観下, ed. Shizuka Sakazaki 坂崎坦 (Tokyo: Mejiro Shoin, 1917), 1432–1435. 34 He used the art name “Keisai” for his popular stories (kusazōshi 草双紙) and erotic books.

51 Eisen became a pupil of Kanō Hakkeisai and studied painting when he was a child

(Hakkeisai, also called Lord Akamatsu, was a stellar pupil of Kanō Eisen Hōin), and later began to design ukiyo-e. (He used the names Kokushunrō and Kokutei.) Eisen had the ambition of becoming a samurai official, but this could not be realized, and he wandered from place to place. Eisen favored Chinese paintings from the Song and Ming periods and loved reading, often forgetting to sleep at night. He enjoyed gesaku 戯作 [“playful writings,” or popular novels] and produced numerous [illustrations for] kusazōshi 草双紙 [illustrated popular books], chūbon 中本 [ “books printed on middle-sized paper” ],35 shunga 春画[erotic pictures], and kōshokubon 好色本 [erotic books]. He came up with a creative way to produce woodblock shunga prints with a few light colors printed by hand. Eisen also excelled at illustrating erotic books [makura bunko 枕文庫]. Following the trend [in bijin-ga 美人画 art], he designed a number of pictures featuring beauties of the floating world (ukiyo bijin 浮

世美人) that became immensely popular. He then taught himself Hokusai’s style and its methods of drawing. Later, he became the head of his own atelier and took in pupils. He excelled at the depiction of courtesans in the green pavilions [Yoshiwara]. His manner of portraying the style of customs and manners specific to each brothel does not resemble

[portrayals of] the antics of actors. Lately, even Kunisada is imitating Eisen’s style of pictures of courtesans [keiseiga 傾城画]. Eisen is the one who began the new popular style.

Eisen has not done actor prints, since he felt that would compromise his integrity as an ukiyo-

35 One of the more common format sizes encountered in fukuro-toji 袋綴じ (pouch binding or side-stitching) books, measuring roughly 200 x 140 mm. See “chūbon,” in The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints 2, ed. Amy Reigle Newland (Amserdam: Hotei Publishing, 2005), 433. Chūbon also points to kokkeibon and ninjōbon which were published in the format.

52 e artist.36 Eisen illustrated some several dozen kusazōshi, chūbon, and illustrated yomihon 読

本.37 The demand for his images was greatest during the Bunka and Bunsei eras [1804‒

1830]. He also designed full-color woodblock prints [nishiki-e 錦絵] for yomihon books.

(Many fan paintings uchiwa-e 団扇絵] are known to have been designed by him. He invented the fashionable aizuri nishiki-e 藍摺絵 [blue-colored prints].) Kyoto and Osaka based publishers also issued copies of his yomihon. Only Hokusai and Eisen [as Edo based artists had the distinction of] having their works published in the three metropolitan cities [of Edo,

Osaka, and Kyoto]. He had numerous pupils.

[… ]

In Eisen’s short biography it says: Ippitsuan Eisen was born in the Hoshigaoka area of Edo.

While his parents were alive, Eisen never went out. (Eisen’s father was Ikeda Masahei

Shigeharu, a talented calligrapher who trained under Enzan Fushinsai. He loved reading books and composing haikai 俳諧 poetry. He also enjoyed the tea practice of the Sen-family and became a friend of the [tea-master] Fuhakuhai). Eisen’s mother died when he was six years old. There was a stepmother, but [she] did not have it in her heart to be his mother.

[Still] he cared for both parents when they suffered poverty. At the beginning of the Bunka era [1804], his father died and his stepmother died in the winter of the same year. Eisen was

36 Ukiyo-e artists come under the umbrella of Yamato-e 大和絵, traditional Japanese paintings that commonly depict subjects from famous tales and poems created within Heian court culture. A statement by Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木春信, earlier recorded in Ōta Nanpo's Hannichi kanwa 半日閑話 (1770), noted that the illustration of kabuki actors was regarded as vulgar. See Fujisawa Murasaki 藤澤紫, an entry of “Suzuki Harunobu” 鈴木春信, in Ukiyo-e daijiten 浮世絵大事典, ed. Kokusai Ukiyo-e Gakkai 国際浮世絵学会 (Tokyo: Tōkyōdō Shuppan, 2008), 260. 37 Literally, “books for reading.”

53 left with the care of three younger sisters. He was tricked by fraud into losing all of the family’s assets. The Mizuno family looked after him, among whom were many of Eisen’s relatives. With no hope for his future, however, he gave up his dream [of becoming a scholar- official] and became an ukiyo-e artist. He also became a pupil of the kabuki playwright

Shinoda Kinji I 初代篠田金治 (later known as Namiki Gohei 並木五瓶). Subsequently, he became a playwright under the name Chiyoda Sai’ichi. He also began to live in the house of

Kikukawa Eiji, the father of the ukiyo-e artist Eizan. At the time, the younger Kikukawa was a popular artist and some feudal lords asked him to paint for them. When a lord of Hishū

[present-day Kumamoto Prefecture] commissioned paintings from Eizan, Eisen joined

Eizan's pupil, Fuzan, to deliver some paintings to the lord. This was the first time that Eisen signed painting(s) with the art name Eisen. From this time onward, he considered himself one of Eizan’s pupils.. From the beginning, Eisen disliked sticking to the same name; he was unsettled and could not decide on a permanent place to live. He painted on kites and hagoita rackets on order as if in a drunken stupor. (Painting kites could make 200 mon per day. Eisen charged seven monme five bu per kite,38 while others charged three monme per kite. Eisen charged twice as much as other skilled artisans. Once, he disappeared after finishing only half of a design for a woodblock print. The client found him at a brothel, so inebriated that he appeared dead. After a while, he completed the picture. At Shiba Kanasugi

Beach, there lived a fish wholesaler named Jōya Rokubei (later known as the publisher

Tomoeya Jinbei) who liked publishing nishiki-e [literally, “brocade pictures” or full-color woodblock prints] and other works. Eisen lived at his house; stole the household’s clothing and sold them for money. He then spent the money in a restaurant and got so drunk that he

38 One mon is about 25 yen in current values (2020); thus 200 mon is about 50,000 yen. One monme is about 1,667 yen. See Edo tsūka no en kansan 江戸通貨の円換算 https://keisan.casio.jp/exec/system. Eisen charged more than double the average going price for painting a kite.

54 fell unconscous. He ate raw pufferfish with boiled pufferfish roe and like to eat wild boar; he wore a haori jacket and geta sandals. When he thought to go out to a place nearby, he would take a boat to Jōsō Kisarazu (the location of the main house of the Ikeda family [from which Eisen claimed descent], was five miles [ri] inland from Kisarazu). Eisen led a dissolute, unruly life. Publishers convinced him to live in the Shinbashi Sōjūrō ward. [There] many friends stayed with him without paying; they kept the house unlocked all the time and so caused the landlord to worry about all sorts of trouble. Eisen never borrowed any money from his family or clan, however. He just lived on whatever he could earn from time to time.

Later, he took a wife but they had no children, so they adopted a girl. He came to his senses and worked hard at designing prints; he slept little and never went out at night. He has excelled at designing nishiki-e pictures for more than a decade. He eventually established his own studio and had many pupils. He regrets not achieving his dream of becoming a samurai official. That is why he is recording his life here. 39 ”

It is clear from the artist’s autobiography that he was engaging in what we today would call “branding,” to promote himself writ large to his audience. He wanted to ensure his audience present and future that he was a great artist of samurai origin who was properly trained in the orthodox Kanō style of painting, an innovator who makes use of precious imported materials like Prussian blue, and an intelligent man-about-town who possessed knowledge of both high and low culture. As an artist, Eisen also describes himself as an unrestrained master who does not follow conventions and is familiar with new developments in art, literature, theatre, and fashions of the demimonde. Eisen’s unconventionality is underscored by his eccentric behavior: food, clothing, and nocturnal outings.

Moreover, he was once a brothel owner, so he has expertise with regard to the most exciting women of the day (i.e., both geisha and prostitutes) and knows how best to portray

39 Keisai, “Mumei-ō zuihitsu,”1432–1435.

55 them. The modern scholar Tanabe Masako speculates that Eisen’s claim to be an expert on the “floating world” might have been a deliberate strategy to better sell his bijin-ga.”40 In fact, Eisen worked in other ukiyo-e genres, including landscape, and he authored a number of books on art and history. His literary talent, education, and intellectual interests were clearly extensive and realized in his prolific output. Eisen also presented himself as an unruly figure of the floating world, putting himself into the rarified ranks of ancient eccentric masters like the great Wu Daozi 呉道子 (680‒ca.760) of the Tang dynasty, who reputedly painted best when intoxicated. However, Eisen’s supposed bohemian lifestyle did not seem to prevent him from being an astute businessman. To judge from his extensive ukiyo-e output, many commissions for his art came his way and he delivered on them.

The autobiography also reveals Eisen took pains to protect his share of the ukiyo-e market, to the point of suggesting that Kunisada somehow imitated his bijin-ga and that as a samurai, he would not condescend to producing actor prints. The first “white lie” hints at the intense rivalry among designers of ukiyo-e at the time. Eisen had cause to be concerned that the public might view his bijin-ga as a clone of Kunisada’s, as both of their styles share commonalities. Likewise, Eisen felt compelled to say that he does not “do” actor prints to hide the reality that the artists of the Utagawa-school, especially Kunisada, the school’s leading artist, had a stronghold on that part of the trendy and fast-moving ukiyo-e market.

With his fame as an established late Edo ukiyo-e artist of bijin-ga, we often forget that

Eisen also designed ukiyo-e in other subjects, including landscapes. In his autobiographical

Mumei-ō zuihitsu, the artist proudly enumerates his artistic training and talents, which are varied. As we shall see in following chapters, ukiyo-e promoters, including publishers, popular writers, brothel owners and their cohorts in cultural groups such as kabuki fan clubs,

40 Tanabe Masako 田辺昌子, “Eisen to iu eshi 英泉という絵師,” in Keisai Eisen, ed. Chiba City Museum (Chiba: Chiba City Museum, 2012), 18.

56 cooperated with Eisen to create his public image of a versatile master with notable skills. As

Davis demonstrates in her study of Utamaro, there was profit for owners of recreational industries and promoters of cultural activities to hitch themselves to his star. Eisen’s sophisticated urbanity and first-hand knowledge of the floating world’s sub-cultures, especially brothels, kabuki theatre, and classical as well as popular literature has often been highlighted.41 Eisen started out as a writer of popular titles centered on the life of the floating world, and he maintained promotion of this public image throughout his career.42 If Eisen’s autobiography was, in part, a strategy to sell his art, particularly his bijin-ga, among the popular educated elites of his time, including well-to-do publishers, brothel and other shop owners, kabuki actors and aficionados, as well as fellow samurai, he succeeded admirably to judge from his prestigious output of more than 1734 surviving works of nishiki-e designs and many titles that have not survived.

As stated in his autobiography, Eisen belonged to the samurai class and was trained as a child under the samurai painter Kanō Hakkeisai 狩野白桂斎 (dates unknown) in the orthodox styles of the Chinese-derived Kanō school of painting.43 Despite his later attempt to pass himself off as a proper samurai with the education and artistic skills of any self- respecting member of higher society, Eisen might have actually trained to become a professional artist because he needed to earn a living. In Eisen’s time, people who produced art for a living were considered vulgar in the eyes of the (samurai) elite.44 The ruling elite or literati painted for self-expression or at least pretended to live up to this ideal and cultivation;

41 See Julie Nelson Davis, Utamaro and The Spectacle of Beauty (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i, 2007), 45‒46. 42 He was also a kabuki playwrit for a short period of time around 1812. See Keisai Eisen, ed. Chiba City Museum (Chiba: Chiba City Museum, 2012), 275. 43 It is not certain at what age Eisen actually started training in painting. 44 Tanaka Yūko, “ Edo bunka no patoronēji” 江戸文化のパトロネージ , in Nihon no kinsei 11 Dentō geinō no tenkai 日本近世 11 伝統芸能の展開, ed. Kumakura Isao 熊倉功夫 (Tokyo: Chūō kōron sha, 1993), 169‒170.

57 not to profit from the sale of their works (and soul) in the marketplace. Thus, because of his samurai birthright, Eisen might have felt compelled to represent himself in his autobiography as a literati painter, who produced art not for commercial purpose, but at leisure and for self- expression (when intoxicated with the muse). There are other examples of contemporaneous artists from the samurai class who became professional artists to earn a livelihood. For instance, the philosopher-painter, Watanabe Kazan 渡部華山 (1793‒1841), who was born into an impoverished samurai family in present-day Aichi prefecture trained as a painter to support his family. Another painter, Uragami Gyokudō 浦上玉堂 (1745‒1820), also from a poor samurai family, took to traveling around Japan to teach music, painting, and calligraphy to affluent merchants in regional areas who were thirsty for cultural knowledge and artistic skills to enhance their newly established status in local society.45 Hence, birthright knowledge of art and literature, as well as the ability to capitalize on those skills, provided incomes for members of the samurai class who had fallen on hard times.

Eisen’s birthright training in the arts was perhaps given to him by his father who was cultured in haikai, tea ceremony, and other literary and intellectual activity. Although Kanō

Hakkeisai is not known, his master, Kanō Eisenin Michinobu 狩野栄川院典信 (1730‒1790), enjoyed an illustrious reputation. He was an artist of the sixth generation of the Kobiki-chō

(Edo) Kanō lineage and a son of Hisanobu 古信(1696–1731). He also used the artistic name,

Hakugyoukusai 白玉斎. As an official painter, Kanō Eisenin was awarded the imperial title hōin 法印 and began to use the new artistic name Eisenin 栄川院. Tokugawa Ieharu 徳川家

治 (1737‒1786), the tenth shōgun 将軍 patronized and promoted him to the rank of hatamoto

旗本, the highest for a retainer.46

45 Ibid. 46 Ōsawa Makoto 大沢まこと, Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉 (Tokyo: Ikugeisha, 1976), 22. Ōsawa refers to Tokyo tanbo annai 東京探墓案内 written by Sasaki Shōzō 佐々木庄蔵(1920)

58 Although Eisen’s early artistic training was in the Kanō lineage, a school specializing in traditional ink landscapes, figure, and bird-and-flower paintings, his first landscape works do not reveal much influence from that Chinese-derived style. There is a hint of Kanō influence in 1825, when the publisher, Tsutaya Kichizō 蔦屋吉蔵 (ca.1820‒1890), issued

Eisen’s illustrated Keisei dōchū sugoroku 契情道中双録 (Tōkaidō Board Game: Fifty-three

Pairings of Yoshiwara Courtesans), a bijin-ga series published around 1825. Each print in this series depicts a popular courtesan from each brothel in Yoshiwara with a small cartouche in the background containing a landscape scene from each way station along the Tōkaidō road. The landscapes in the cartouches vaguely refer to the Kanō school as shall be discussed when we return to this series later on in this chapter. Around the year 1842, the same publishing house again employed Eisen to illustrate another bijin-ga series, the Bijin Tōkaidō

美人東海道 (Beauties of the Stations on the Tōkaidō Road), which depicts a seductive woman for each way station along the Tōkaidō road. This series also contains examples of

Eisen’s landscape art in the background. These works reveal that Eisen’s early training was in landscape art of the Kanō school, and not ukiyo-e which he took up because it was a more lucrative way for an orphaned samurai like him with sisters to support to earn a livelihood. It is not until the decade of the 1830s‒1840s, when landscape art as subject matter in ukiyo-e became popular and landscape prints came into vogue47 that Eisen was able to return to his early training and demonstrate his skill in producing landscapes reminiscent of the Kanō

mistakenly regarding Kanō Eisenin as the fifth head of Kobiki-Kanō lineage. However, Kanō Eisenin is the sixth head of Kobiki-Kanō lineage.

47 The boom in woodblock landscape prints of the time is best represented by two series— Hokusai’s Fugaku sajūrokkei 富嶽三十六景 (Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji) published in 1831 by Nishimuraya Yohachi and Hiroshige’s Tōkaidō gojū-san tsugi 東海道五十三次 (The Fifty-Three Stations of Tōkaidō) co-published in 1832‒1833 by Hoeidō 保永堂 (Takeuchi Magohachi 竹内孫八, ca. 1832– 40) and Senkakudō 僊鶴堂(Tsuruya Kiemon 鶴 屋喜右衛門, 1620s–1852; ca.1870–98 ).

59 school. Figure 6 is a reproduction of a landscape print designed by Eisen that shows his versatility as an artist. As demonstrated by his use of angular brushwork to depict mountains and rocks, scattered dots to represent moss or foliage, and dramatic tonal contrasts of light and shade, he remained a versatile artist who had not lost his ability to paint in the style of the

Kanō school even like in life.

Figure 6

60 Keisai Eisen, Setchū sansui zu 雪中山水図 (Mountain and River Landscape in Snow),1830‒1844. Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation. Reproduction taken from an exhibition catalogue, Keisai Eisen (2012) compiled by Chiba City Museum of Art, cat.no. 122.

In addition to Kanō-school influence, many of Eisen’s landscape prints also demonstrate qualities of the naturalistic style of landscape championed by the contemporaneous Maruyama-Shijō 円山四条 school. This more realistic approach to landscape art was also utilized at the time by Hiroshige in a series of famous landscape prints.

However, Hiroshige’s landscape prints employed more simplified lines and composition than

Eisen’s, making them better suited for faster and more profitable printing. The two artists are recorded to have worked consecutively on the same landscape print project. In 1835‒1842,

Eisen was commissioned to design the first twenty-four landscapes for the print series, Kiso– kaidō rokujū kyū tsugi 木曽街道六十九次 (Sixty-nine Stations of Kiso road) issued by the publishing house of Hōeidō 保永堂 (Takenouchi Magohachi 竹内孫八,1833– 1840).48 Later, the house of Kinjudō 錦樹堂 (Iseya Rihei 伊勢屋利兵衞, 1790s– ca. 1879) took over the project after a short collaboration with Hōeidō publishers. However, Kinjudō publishers turned to Hiroshige rather than Eisen to continue making the landscape designs. Hayashi

Yoshikazu thinks that Hōeidō might have gone into bunkruptcy by then.49 However, it is clear that Eisen was considered by the leading publishers of the time, particularly the house of the previously mentioned Tsutaya Kichizō, a younger branch of the publishing house established Tsutaya Jūzaburō 蔦屋重三郎 (1750 –1797),50 as an adaptable artist who could work in many styles and genres, not just bijin-ga.

48 See Hayashi Yoshikazu 林美一, Oei to Eisen 阿栄と英泉 (Tokyo: Yūkō shobō, 1967), 98. 49 Ibid. 50 Kokusai ukiyo-e gakkai, ed.Ukiyo-e daijiten, 316.

61

As recorded in his autobiographical Mumei-ō hitsu, around 1805, when Eisen turned fifteen, the age of imminent adulthood, he began training with Kikukawa Eizan 菊川英山

(1787‒1867) and designed illustrations for fans, kites, and other products.51 Ōsawa notes that when Eisen’s father and stepmother both died in the same year (1810), he was left with the care of his family, including his two stepsisters. Moreover, in the same year, he lost his job as a retainer for the Abō Hōjō Mizuno family, due to a conspiracy of which details are unknown. Losing a steady income, Eisen had to earn money to support himself and his family from painting and writing. According to Ōsawa, it was around this time that Eisen started to live in the home of Kikukawa Eiji 菊川英二 (dates unknown), father of Eizan who was only three years older than Eisen.52 Thus, unlike some other members of the samurai elite who could afford to practice art at leisure as a hobby, Eisen had to embark on making art as a career out of necessity to support his family. 53 But as a bona fide member of the samurai class, it is assumed that he was most likely able to maintain friendships with the educated elite and keep up elite practices like writing. There is evidence tried his hand at writing kabuki plays and popular books, although it did not perhaps go as well as his career in ukiyo- e, to judge from the limited number of existing books by him.54 Ōsawa argues that it was likely the slightly older Eizan was the supporter who introduced Eisen to the kabuki world.

Eizan was already designing illustrations for popular books, bijin-ga, and kabuki actor prints by1804, a year or so before Eisen became his disciple. According to Suzuki Kōhei, Eizan became a major ukiyo-e artist of bijin-ga equal to Utagawa Toyokuni I 初代歌川豊国 (1769–

51 Keisai, “Mumei-ō zuihitsu,” 1432-1435. 52 Ōsawa, Keisai Eisen, 36. 53 Ōsawa, Keisai Eisen, 36. 54 There is evidence that late in his career Eisen was active as a gesaku author. For this discussion, see Chapter Four, 251–252.

62 1825) and Katsukawa Shunsen 勝川春扇 (1762‒1830) in the wake of Utamaro’s death in

1806, and eventually went on to establish his own namesake Kikukawa lineage of ukiyo-e.

Eizan’s father, Eiji, was also an artist and had trained under Kanō Tōsha 狩野東舎 (date unknown). In addition to training with his father, Eizan also studied under Suzuki Nanrei 鈴

木南嶺 (1755‒1844), an artist of the Edo Maruyama painting school, and learned the

Hokusai style through Totoya Hokkei 魚屋北渓 (1780‒1850), one of Hokusai’s pupils.55

Thus, Eisen could have indirectly learned of the Hokusai style from his teacher Eizan, as part of his training in ukiyo-e.

As suggested by Ōsawa, it was also likely through Eizan that Eisen was first introduced to the world of kabuki. Early in his career, Eizan had painted some fans of the kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjūrō VII (1800‒1832) and designed a few kabuki-related prints.56

Ōsawa speculates that Eizan’s connections to kabuki might have made it possible for Eisen, who at the time was using the pen-name of Chiyoda Saiichi, to be asked by Shinoda Kinji, the main playwright of the Ichimura 市村 theater group, to help with a kabuki play he was writing.57 Eisen was twenty-two years old (1812) when this opportunity to use his skill at writing appeared.58 Ōsawa continues that it might have also been through this opportunity that Eisen began depicting kabuki actors. The actual subject of the bijin-ga by Eisen illustrated in Figure 7 is that an oiran, or high-ranking courtesan, but the composition contains a portrait of a kabuki actor in the circular cartouche on the upper left side. It is a

55 See Suzuki Kōhei 鈴木浩平, “Kikukawa Eizan” 菊川英山. In Ukiyo-e daijiten 浮世絵大 事典, ed. Kokusai ukiyo-e gakkai 国際浮世絵学会 (Tokyo: Tokyōdō shuppan, 2008), 161. 56 Ōsawa, Keisai Eisen, 36. 57 Ōsawa, Keisai Eisen, 38-41. 58 Matsuda Misako 松田美沙子, “Keisai Eisen to sono jidai: Kanren nenpyō” 渓斎英泉とそ の時代：関連年表, in Keisai Eisen, ed. Chiba City Museum (Chiba: publisher, 2012), 275.

63 demonstration of Eisen’s ability, early in his artistic, to depict kabuki actors. Nonetheless,

Eisen never fully ventured into the production of actor portraits and only a handful of examples in the genre have survived. As noted in his autobiography later in life, Eisen stressed that he does not do kabuki actor prints as they “would compromise his integrity as an ukiyo-e artist.” Suzuki Harunobu also left a similar statement: “I am a Yamato-e style painter. In what world would I draw kabuki actors ...” (我は大和絵師なり。何ぞ河原者の

形を画くにたへんとやと…).59 Because kabuki actors were categorized as kawaramono

(literally, “people living [down] on the riverbank”) who belong to an outcast group during the

Edo, both Harunobu and Eisen insisted on their higher social position as selective artists who only work with proper subjects and people. As I have already noted above, Eisen’s professed disdain for making kabuki actor prints might have had more to do with the reality that such commissions seldom came his way because that ukiyo-e genre was monopolized by the contemporaneous Utagawa lineage. However, prints of popular actors were a profitable genre within ukiyo-e and Eisen probably used his reputation as a man in the know about brothels, women, and the latest trends in popular art and literature as a back door to get such commissions, but few came his way. Hence, his denigration of actor prints could be construed as a serious case of artistic sour grapes.The circle cartouche on the upper left corner of Figure 7 portrays Ichikawa Danjūrō VII in the role of Shirozake uri 白酒賣 (vendor of sake). Eisen’s depiction of Danjūrō VII is stylistically similar to the so-called ‘likeness portraits’ (nigao-e 似顔絵) or actor prints produced by the Utagawa lineage, which aim to recognizably depict the “look” of a kabuki actor— with exaggerated expression, intense eyes, and straight nose held high. Eisen’s work in portraying actors is also demonstrated a painting

59 See Ōta Nanpo 大田南畝, “Hannichi kanwa kan no jūni” 半日閑話之十二. In Shokusanjin zenshū kan san 蜀山人全集巻 ３ (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1907‒1908), vol. 3: 228‒229.

64 that depicts kabuki actor Onoe Kikugorō III 三代尾上菊五郎 (1784‒1849) in a landscape setting (Figure 8). The actor’s poetry name is Baikō 梅幸 (Plum’s Fortune) as hinted at in the plum (bai ume) blossom pattern on his kimono.60 Tsuda Mayumi reports that Eisen belonged to the same poetry circle as Kikugorō, Shunsui, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, and a lord of the

Chōshū domain, Mōri Narimoto 毛利斉元 (1794‒1836), who was known by his pen name,

Edo no Hananari 江戸廼花也 who took Tamenaga Shunsui’s adopted daughter as an official concubine (a younger sister of Kiyomoto Nobutsuga 清元延津賀 (act. early 19th century), a female master of the Kiyomoto school of jōruri shamisen playing and a member of Shunsui’s writing circle for narrative gesaku fictions) .61 The literary circle was led by Yomo no Magao

四方真顔 (1753‒1829), also known as Shikatsube no Magao 鹿津部真顔, a kyōka poet and writer of popular stories. Magao had appreticend under Ōta Nanpo 大田南畝 (1749‒1823), one of the most powerful leaders of the so-called “mad-verse” circles in the early nineteenth century. As Magao had many students who were actual lords of provincial domains, Lord

Narimoto’s participation of the circle is not a surprise and Eisen perhaps encountered him and other aristocratic patrons for his popular print designs and paintings. Hence by having the right friends in the right places, Eisen was able to find commissions for his bijin-ga.

Likewise, Eisen had friends in theatre and was able to be acquainted with some kabuki actors and occasionally drew actor pictures despite the monopoly that other artistic lineages held on nigao-e painting. We explore Eisen’s connection to kabuki and its influence on his bijin-ga in

Chapter Three.

60 Izzard Sebastian, Keisai Eisen: Seven Paintings (New York: Sebastian Izzard LLC, 2009), 24‒25. 61 Tsuda, Mayumi 津田真弓. “The Daimyō as Kabuki Fan and Kyōka Poet: Surimono Commissioned by Edo no Hananari,” in Carpenter, John T. ed., Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints. (Zurich and Leiden: Museum Rietberg in association with Hotei Publishing, 2008), 62-71.

65

Figure 7. Keisai Eisen. Shrozake-uri 白酒売 (White Sweet Rice Wine-Seller), featuring Ichikawa Danjūrō VII, from the series Fūryū hana awase 風流花合 (Collection of Fashionable Flowers), ca.1812. Nagoya Television Collection. Reproduction taken from an exhibition catalogue, Keisai Eisen (2012), compiled by Chiba City Museum of Art, cat. no. 1.

66

Figure 8. Keisai Eisen. Kabuki actor Kabuki actor Onoe Kikugorō III Edo period, ca.1830‒1832 Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper Reproduction taken from an exhibition catalogue, Keisai Eisen Seven Paintings, compiled by Sebastian Izzard, cat. no.4.

As Eizan’s early influence is vital to understanding the development of Eisen’s bijin- ga, it is instructive to compare and identify some of their stylistic similarities and differences.

Eisen’s earliest bijin-ga (Figure 7), dating to about 1812, certainly demonstrates Eizan’s influence as it has elements carried over from Utamaro, from whom Eizan’s bijin-ga descend.

Eizan’s signature Utamaro-inspired female images are often described as elegant and pleasant beauties rendered with smooth and fluid brushwork (Figure 9).62 However, as has been noted, Eizan was also trained in the Kanō school and also learned the style of Hokusai indirectly through his friend Totoya Hokkei, who had studied with Hokusai. This parallels exactly the artistic training of Eisen, who first trained with the Kanō school and then self- trained in the style of Hokusai. Eisen quickly mastered the depiction of women in the style of

Utamaro/Eizan early in his ukiyo-e career. This early bijin-ga style of Eisen, in the mode of

62 Suzuki Kōhei, “Kikukawa Eizan,” in Ukiyo-e daijiten, 161.

67 Utamaro/Eizan, changed dramatically about a decade and a half later to coalesce into his mature “signature” style of the 1820s, due to the prevailing influence of the Utagawa-school actor prints, as shall be discussed in Chapter Three.

Figure 9. Kikukawa Eizan. Chōjiya no uchi, Chōzan and Nishikido 丁子屋内 丁山 錦戸(Chōzan and Nishikido of the Chōjiya), 1808. Ōta kinen bijutsukan (Ōta Memorial Ukiyo-e Museum) . Reproduction taken from an exhibition catalogue, Kikikawa Eizan (2017), compiled by Ōta kinen bijutsukan, cat. no.21.

68

Figure 10 illustrates a representative bijin-ga by Eizan that was likely produced during the time that Eisen was studying ukiyo-e with him. It shows an image of a strolling woman holding up an umbrella dressed in a bright, reddish kimono with long sleeves

(furisode 振袖) with her hair tied up by big ribbons. Her costume and her hairdo attest to her youthful beauty. She holds up the hem of her kimono with her left hand to protect it from the rain, revealing her red undergarment and a part of the fair skin on her lower leg (both erotic elements in bijin-ga). The red undergarment is drawn with fluid brushstrokes creating a cascade of realistic wave-like wrinkles, reminiscent of the lower hems of undergarments in the Hokusai’s style (Figure 11). Together with the undulating lines of her kimono blowing in a slight wind, her entire body forms an s-shaped silhouette. Altogether, Eizan presents us with a sexually provocative but still traditional image of a fashionable young woman in motion as she walks along a rainy Edo street.

69

Figure 10. Kikukawa Eizan. Kasa wo motsu musume 傘を持つ娘(Woman Holding an Umbrealla), ca. 1814‒1817. Ōta kinen bijutsukan (Ōta Memorial Ukiyo-e Museum). Reproduction taken from Ōta kinen bijutsukan (2017), Kikikawa Eizan, cat. no.141.

70

Figure 11. Katsushika Hokusai. Tsukuma matsuri 筑摩祭り(Tsukuma Festival), ca.1799–1801. Freer/Sackler Gallery, National Museum of Asian Art Reproduction taken from Hokusai no bijin 北斎の美人(2005), edited by Kobayashi Tadashi.

71 Detail of Figure 11

Figure 12 shows a triptych depicting three female images that can be considered representative of Eisen’s bijin-ga in the style of Eizan (Figure 10), particularly the figure in the middle panel. She offers an unseen viewer a sideways glance while holding an opened umbrella to guard against strong wind and rain, which have blown the bottom of her kimono up, exposing dainty toes peering out from the straps of black lacquered geta clogs. The landscape background is rendered in muted monochromatic ink style. The soft, oval face is similar in shape and softness to faces employed by Eizan. The upper part of the kimono, especially around the chest, as well as the shape of the obi (sash), are drawn with sharp angular lines, adding a feeling of movement and ‘crispness’ reminiscent of Hokusai’s style.

72 According to his autobiography, Eisen “taught himself the Hokusai style and its methods.”

For a competitive

Figure 12. Keisai Eisen. Shoka no ame 初夏の雨(Rain in the Early Summer), ca.1818‒1830. Chiba City Museum of Art. Reproduction taken from an exhibition catalogue, Keisai Eisen (2012), compiled by Chiba City Museum of Art, cat. no.24.

artist like Eisen, to claim stylistic affinity with Katsushika Hokusai style was unavoidable, as the older artist by some thirty years was perhaps the most influential and sought-after ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo period. Although it is unclear whether Eisen ever received direct instruction from Hokusai, the two of them apparently travelled in the same artistic circles and some of the master’s influence can be discerned in the realistic detailing of form and movement as seen in works such as the triptych of Figure 12. Additionally, Hayashi

Yoshikazu reports that one of Hokusai’s illustrated erotic publications, the Ehon tsui no hinagata 絵本つひの雛形 (Pattern of Loving Couple) of 1812, has a preface written by

Eisen under his pen name, Jokōken shujin 女好軒主人. All of the erotic illustrations of the woodblock book are considered to have been designed by Hokusai’s daughter, Oei. Yet

Eisen’s signature with his shunga art name, Murasakiiroan gankō 紫色庵鴈高, is found on

73 many pages. Hayashi concludes that this book was designed by Eisen in terms of the preliminary drawing of pictures, texts, and postscript, but that Oei drew all the final illustrations. Two years later in 1814, Eisen also contributed a preface for Hokusai’s erotic book, Kinoe no komatsu 喜能會之故眞通. It seems that Eisen was acquainted with Hokusai through Eizan, the previously mentioned Totoya Hokkei (one of Hokusai’s pupils) and Oei

(daughter of Hokusai), and that he gradually became a contributing member to Hokusai’s expansive studio.63 Eisen’s association with Hokusai was undoubtedly a huge boost to his reputation and earning power.

It was around this time that Eisen first became acquainted with Tamenaga Shunsui a prolific writer of ninjōbon and entrepreneur who owned a publishing house and lending library, perhaps following in the footsteps of the celebrated ukiyo-e print and ehon 絵本

(illustrated/picture books) of the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō, who had been a major patron of

Utamaro. Shunsui was eager to make quick money to bankroll his large- scale literary projects, so following the proven business model of previous generation ukiyo-e producers like Jūzaburō would have been a shrewd business decision. Ōsawa Makoto argues that around 1811, Shunsui and Eisen initiated co-production of shunga/shunpon because erotica had become a lucrative luxury item. It is often said ukiyo-e designers early in their careers commonly produced designs for shunpon to make a quick profit. The production of shunga had become strictly prohibited in 1722, so artists dare not sign their names to such work.

Thus, it hardly mattered which artists designed the erotica, as long as they had the skills for the job. Figure 13 shows the opening pages for an erotic work by Eisen that clearly demonstrates the influence on him of the facial style associated with Eizan. This work is thought to date slightly earlier than the 1820s, the decade when Eisen first established his signature bijin-ga style. It was likely the wide circulation of erotica like this pair of coy

63 Hayashi Yoshikazu, Oei to Eisen, 32.

74 geisha portraits, along with his promising work on popular book illustrations, which caused major publishers and purveyors of ukiyo-e to take notice of the young Eisen’s skill in drawing, coloring, and design, and to steadily send commissions his way.

Figure 13. Keisai Eisen. Illustrations in Ehon mime kurabe 艶本美女競 A Comparison of Beautiful Women, vol. 1 of 3, ca.1822. Richard Lane Collection Purchase, Honolulu Museum of Arts, 2003 (2016-56-032.01).

By the time Eisen issued his autobiographical Mumei-ō zuihitsu in 1833, he had already established his position as one of the foremost bijin-ga artists. Nonetheless, Eisen still

75 viewed Kunisada as a rival,64 as revealed by his own words (in the third person) from the text:

He excelled at the depiction of courtesans in the green pavilions [Yoshiwara]. His

manner of portraying the style of customs and manners specific to each brothel does

not resemble the antics of actors. 65 Lately even Kunisada is imitating Eisen’s style

courtesans [keiseiga]. Eisen is the one who began the new popular style. 66

In attempting to assert the originality of his bijin-ga style over Kunisada’s, Eisen reveals his rivalry with Kunisada not only in creative terms, but also in regard to their professional competition. At the same time, this statement might demonstrate Eisen’s real fear that ukiyo-e audiences might have been confusing their respective output, which was close in style.

Despite frequent comparison between Eisen and Kunisada, even by modern ukiyo-e scholars, their artistic relationship is still obscure in terms of how much they influenced each other. It doesn’t help that they were co-illustrators and collaborators on numerous popular book projects, and thus had to work in similar styles.67 Both Eisen and Kunisada began designing bijin-ga prints in the early nineteenth century and continue doing so into the mid- nineteenth century. This period of several decades was when both were in the prime of their lives and celebrated as designers of bijin-ga. When Eisen’s autobiography came out in 1833,

Kunisada was at his height in his artistic career due to the craze for Ryūtei Tanehiko’s

64 Matsuda Misako 松田美沙子, “Ukiyo-eshi Keisai Eisen nishiki-e bijin-ga ni kansuru ichikōsatsu: Utagawa Kunisada tono hikaku o chūshin ni” 浮世絵師渓斎英泉錦絵美人画に 関する一考察歌川国貞との比較を中心に Bijitsushi (2014): 21. 65 Eisen is probably referring here to the bijin-ga of the Utagawa school, based on the ‘likeness portraits’ (nigao-e) of kabuki onnagata actors. 66 Keisai, “Mumei-ō zuihitsu,” 1433. The Japanese version and English translation of this text appears on above on page 32. 67 There are 18 titles of books for which Eisen and Kunisada were co-illustrators.

76 popular novel, Nise Murasaki inaka Genji 偽紫田舎源氏 (The Rustic Genji, False Murasaki and a Country Genji), a best-seller that was continuously published from 1829 to 1842 and contained illustrations by him. In this same period, there were some tragic events in Eisen’s life just before Eisen’s publication of his 1833 Mumei-ō hitsu. These events are recorded by

Kyokutei Bakin 曲亭馬琴 (1767‒1848), a writer of yomihon (“books for readings” or popular romances), who made references in his diaries to many famous ukiyo-e designers including Hokusai, Kunisada and Eisen. Eisen worked with Bakin on illustrations for volume five of his popular series, the Nansō satomi hakkenden 南総里見八犬伝 (Tale of Eight

Dogs) starting around 1823. The entry in Bakin’s diary for the eighth day of the eighth month in1828 notes that Eisen had to assume a heavy debt as the guarantor for one of his young stepsisters and her husband.68 They had opened a brothel in Nezu, a popular brothel area to the north of Edo, but the business did not go well. At this point, Eisen was in financial difficulty and had to find ways to pay down the debt. In the next year, Bakin’s diary entry for the 21st day of the third month of 1829 records that Eisen’s house in the Edo district of

Owari-chō 尾張町 burnt down in a fire.69 After this tragedy, Eisen and his family had to move into the house of relatives in Nezu. Perhaps it was the house of Eisen’s young sister and her husband who owned the failing brothel, a business that Eisen later joined. The precise date for the start of Eisen’s participation in the brothel enterprise is not known. Bad fortune struck once again on the tenth day of the twelfth month in 1830, when both the brothel and house burnt in another fire. Bakin’s diary entry for the 26th day of the tenth month of 1831

68 Kyokutei Bakin 曲亭馬琴, Kyokutei Bakin nikki 曲亭馬琴日記(1826‒1849), ed. Shibata Mitsuhiko 柴田光彦 (Tokyo: Chūōkōronsha, 2009‒2010). 69 This house was owned by someone named Ibei 伊兵衛 and rented to Eisen.See Ōsawa, Keisai Eisen, 111.

77 states that the illustrator “Eisen quit his job as an ukiyo-e designer” (...英泉 画師をやめ...).70

However, According to Ōsawa Makoto, Eisen’s retirement from art only lasted for about a year, until the end of 1832, during which time he did not produce any book illustrations or single-sheet prints.71 Apparently, after the fire(s), Eisen was able to sustain himself and his family only on the proceeds from the family’s brothel business. It is assumed that in order to earn income, he turn to drumming up interest in his work as an ukiyo-e artist. It was under this dire situation that Eisen published his Mumei-ō hitsu in 1833 as a public relations ploy to remind the public that his talents and skills as an ukiyo-e designer were available for service.

Thus, his self-serving autobiography can be viewed both as a tactic to ward off economic ruin and an antidote to counter the rising popularity of Kunisada’s bijin-ga and actor prints. To judge from their surviving outputs, Eisen seems to have had more success downplaying

Kunisada’s talent in bijin-ga than denigrating actor prints. As noted, Kunisada was the leading artist of the Utagawa lineage and had a stronghold on the production of ‘likeness portraits’ or nigao-e of actors, the Utagawa specialty. It would have been hard for independent artists like Eisen (or even artists of other lineages) to obtain commissions to produce portraits of popular kabuki actors, a lucrative market within ukiyo-e due to the immense fan base for kabuki at the time who bought nigao-e prints.

As noted in the Introduction, according to Matsuda Misako, Eisen’s extant full-color nishiki-e designs number 1,265 items, of which approximately 70 percent are image of female beauties. This number indicate that Eisen’s specialty was bijin-ga. Of these, 482 prints, roughly 38 percent, are renditions of Yoshiwara prostitutes. 72 Eisen’s prints of

Yoshiwara prostitutes include the names of women, perhaps an indication that their

70 See Bakin nikki 馬琴日記 wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/i04/i04_00600_0101/index.html 71 Ōsawa, Keisai Eisen, 114. 72 Matsuda, Bijitsushi (2014): 19.

78 production was financially supported by brothels in Yoshiwara.73 This type of print, which art historians today refer to as nyūginmono 入銀物 (literally, “financially sponsored items”), functioned as advertisements for the charms of courtesans, brothels, and the Yoshiwara in general. In other words, the popularity of Eisen’s bijin-ga led Yoshiwara brothel owners to contribute financially to his production costs. This is evidence of Eisen’s celebrity status as a bijin-ga artist in the large genre of ukiyo-e art during the first half of the nineteenth century.

As noted, there was a real financial need as head of household for Eisen to re-affirm his status as a bijin-ga specialist in his autobiography in the light of the fact that Kunisada was producing near identical bijin-ga prints around 1830s.

For his bijin-ga, Eisen worked with more than 50 publishers (See List A at the end of this chapter below). Among them, the five top publishers whom Eisen worked most with were the previously mentioned Tsutaya Kichizō, followed by Wakasaya Yoichi 若狭屋与市

(ca. 1794‒1897), Izumiya Ichibei 和泉屋市兵衛 (ca.1686‒1886) and Sanoya Kihei 佐野屋

喜兵衞 (ca.1717‒1875) in order of frequency and importance. The house of Tsutaya Kichizō, a later branch of the house of Tsutaya Jūzaburō, had published many bijin-ga by Utamaro, and was still closely associated with the Yoshiwara brothel quarter in Eisen’s time. Hence the prestige Tsutaya Kichizō added to Eisen’s reputation as a proven master of bijin-ga cannot be overstated. His store was located in the Minami tenma-chō 南伝馬町 district of

Kyobashi 京橋, one of the most flourishing areas in the heart of Edo city. The area housed many wholesale stores selling papers, tobacco, tea, and other luxury items, in addition to restaurants.74 Kichizō was perhaps one of the most powerful late Edo publishers and had a prime location for social and cultural involvement in the life of the city. He was also

73 Ibid. 74 Nishiyama Matsunosuke 西山松之助 et al, Edogaku jiten 江戸学事典 (Tokyo: Kōbundō, 1994), 95.

79 seemingly well-connected to Yoshiwara business, following the path cut by his predessor,

Tsutaya Jūzaburō. More than half (approximately 100) of Eisen’s bijin-ga designs were published by Kichizō and they depict Yoshiwara courtesans. One of the most successful bijin-ga series designed by Eisen and published by Kichizō is the aforementioned Keisei dōchū sugoroku (Tōkaidō Board Game: Fifty-three Pairings of Yoshiwara Courtesans) series that came out around the year 1825. Each print in the series depicts a famous courtesan

(along with her name and brothel) accompanied by a cartouche in the background illustrating a landscape scene belonging to a specific way station along the Tōkaidō road, from

Nihonbashi in Edo to Kyoto, the final destination. Meticulous drawing of the kimono designs, compositions with individualized poses, and a multiple of different color palettes suggest that the price and quality of this print series was high. As Matsuda Misako has pointed out, this series perhaps belonged to the category of nyūginmono, or bijin-ga sponsored by individual brothel owners in Yoshiwara to advertise their top-class courtesans.

Hence, around the year 1825, Eisen was still considered one of the most representative and popular designers of bijin-ga.

The other three major publishers with whom Eisen worked were all located in Shiba myōjin mae Mishima-chō 芝明神前三島町. The location is actually on the Tōkaidō road within the city of Edo. In fact, it the last station in the capital city where visitors could purchase Edo souvenirs before completing their journey home to the countryside. Suzuki

Jūzō has noted that publishers produced and sold ukiyo-e at the Shiba myōjin mae Mishima- chō way station, including bijin-ga for visitors from the provinces.75 According to Matthi

Forrer, Eisen’s ōban 大判 (large size) bijin-ga were published in the Shiba area, where many tourists would have purchased ukiyo-e as souvenirs on the way home along the Tōkaidō

75 Suzuki Jūzō 鈴木重三, Ehon to ukiyo-e 絵本と浮世絵 (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu Shuppansha , 1979), 482.

80 road.76 Hence, the subjects of Eisen’s bijin-ga prints might have targeted Edoites, but hordes of souvenir-buying visitors from the provinces were also part of the audience for his prints. I hypothesized that Eisen’s bijin-ga images might have conveyed visions of a new feminine ideal that came to be known an iki-type of women (more on this new female type in later chapters) that was carried back home to ukiyo-e audiences in the provinces, helping to visually disseminate the latest in fashion, makeup, and behaviors of the new urban commoner-class women into the countryside. In light of this, souvenir shops along Edo way stations can be regarded as functioning as a venue or media that disseminate information about the new type of popular women to a wider audience.

Another venue through which Eisen ensured that his name as a designer of bijin-ga reach as wide an audience as possible was through the design of surimono (special publications of poems/cards, often illustrated), of which there are 129 extant examples for kyōka poetry circles.77 Through his participation in elite cultural and social clubs which the main clients of surimono, Eisen perhaps met wealthy patrons who commissioned him to make nikuhitsu-ga 肉筆画 (paintings). In fact, the painting of the actor Onoe Kikugoroō III mentioned above (Figure 1) is known to be associated with Edo no Hananari (Mōri

Narimoto), lord of the Chōshū domain and a member of the kyōka circle led by the poet

Magao. Although we do not know much about the patronage of Eisen’s ukiyo-e paintings, of which there are approximately 19 extant in total, 16 of them are depictions of women who are either geisha or courtesans, which indicates that Eisen was favored for his work in the genre of bijin-ga.

76 Matthi, Forrer, “The Relationship Between publishers and Print formats in the Edo Period,” in The Commercial and Cultural Climate of Japanese Printmaking, ed. Amy Reigle Newland (Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2004), 171‒206. 77 Matsuda Misako 松田美沙子, “Eisen Nishiki-e sōmokuroku” 英泉錦絵総目録, in Keisei Eisen, ed. Chiba City Museum (Chiba: Chiba City Museum, 2012), 296‒298.

81 By late Edo times, high-born samurai like Lord Mōri Narimoto (Edo no Hananari)78 crossed class lines to engage in cultural activities like learning how to compose kyōka with a poet master like Magao, who rose out of the merchant class, which points to social liberalization within the ruling class. Magao left some surimono for which he hired ukiyo-e designers to illustrate, including Eisen and Kunisada. This provide evidence that the audience of Eisen’s bijin-ga in the early nineteenth century was not confined to the lower stratum of society but also included samurai of the highest level, like Lord Narimoto. Although much of this thesis focuses on the fact that the change in taste or aesthetic of nineteenth-century ukiyo- e owes much to a change of audience (to the lower commoner class). However, it would be wrong to make this blanket observation about Eisen, an uniquely versatile and opportunistic designer whose patrons were from all socio-economic classes, from lowly sex workers to the highest ranking samurai, as his work for Lord Narimoto proves. In addition to his work on bijin-ga, Eisen designed many book illustrations for popular literature. There are 405 extant illustrated books which were drawn or co-drawn by Eisen and other ukiyo-e designers.

Among them, 54 are erotic books and 25 include books on women’s learning and education, and war history.79 All of which attest to Eisen’s versatility in all genres and skilled at reaching the widest audience possible, including a newly vested female audience, as we shall see in the following chapters.

Despite his claim of originality, however, Eisen’s bijin-ga appears to be based on the

Utagawa style of depicting the ‘likeness pictures’ (nigao-e) of kabuki onnagata actors. He perhaps acquired the Utagawa style of bijin-ga due to the request by publishers, writers, and other promoters of ukiyo-e images. In due course, Eisen modified his image as an artist and became the self-proclaimed originator of a new style of bijin-ga, going so far as to publish

78 See page 40. 79 Database of Pre-Modern Japanese Works (https://kotenseki.nijl.ac.jp/?ln=en) compiled by National Institute of Japanese Literature.

82 that the bijin-ga of his rival, Kunisada (of the Utagawa lineage), was an imitation of his for the sake of safeguarding his “brand” and his business profits. In fact, the key figure in the mode of bijin-ga represented by the works of both Eisen and Kunisada, was Utagawa

Toyokuni I (1769–1825), the head of the Utagawa studio and a leader in the design of both bijin-ga and yakusha-e (actor prints). Kunisada was one of Toyokuni I’s stellar pupils while Eisen was never a student of that lineage. Nonetheless, the Utagawa style influenced

Eisen's bijin-ga as seen in the visual similarities between Eisen’s female images and those produced by artists of that lineage. This could not be helped due to the collaborative business environment of Edo-period publishing houses, which rewarded imitation and familiarity in printed imagery. Ukiyo-e artists worked under the guidance and instruction of publishers who valued big profits at the lowest costs. To do this successfully, publishers needed to capitalize on current fashions, personalities, and societal trends and to quickly incorporate them into their products before they faded. In Eisen’s time, perhaps the most talk about “It girl” in town was the popular Segawa Kikunojō V, one of the most celebrated onnagata (female impersonator) of the first half of nineteenth century. His female persona as a beautiful, stylish, and engaging woman was visualized by the artists of the Utagawa lineage, starting with Utagawa Toyokuni I in 1817. From the reading of his short autography and the ensuing discussion about some of his social contacts, it is apparent that Eisen, through both inclination and circumstance, was closely connected to popular theatre, literature, and art

(ukiyo-e) circles through a web of mutual friendships and business interests. As we shall see, it was due to “connections” that Eisen apparently got started in his career as designer of a

“new style” of bijin-ga in 1819 from artists of the Utagawa school, who in turn, evolved their lineage’s signature bijin-ga style from producing so-called “likeness portraits” (nigao-e) of actors. How these artistic connections and interchanges, individually or collectively,

83 influenced the style and content of Eisen’s bijin-ga will be taken up in greater detail in the chapters to come.

Before delving into the actual development of Eisen’s bijin-ga oeuvre, I would like to first devote the next chapter to investigating the subject matter or real-life women who appear in Eisen’s bijin-ga. How much do we know about the beauties depicted as subject matter in which Eisen of prints? Most of Eisen’s bijin-ga depict courtesans and geisha. What kind of homes did these ladies of the night come from? What were the forces that lead them into the sex trade? How did they fare once they established themselves as their industry? What other job opportunities did women have besides selling their bodies? How did society at large view sex workers vis à vis other women? What were societal perceptions toward women in Edo times? Did women have the same educational level as men? In Chapter Two, I hope to explore Eisen’s extensive bijin-ga with these questions in mind. My investigation would be one of earlier studies to look at the artist’s bijin-ga oeuvre within gender/women history context of the Edo period. Casting a wider net to include the socio-historical context and circumstances under which Eisen worked is essential to determining the role he played in the creation of a new image of woman in late Edo ukiyo-e bijin-ga.

84