Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) Japanese, ,Woodblock Print. "Okazaki: Aimachi of the Sugata-Ebiya," from the series A Tokaido Board Game of Courtesans: Fifty-three Pairings in the Yoshiwara. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Overall: 23 1/4 x 18 1/2 in. 

Sight: 13 1/2 x 10 1/4 in. 

#5031 #17j . 

Keisai Eisen was born as Ikeda Yoshinobu in Edo (modern day Tokyo) in 1790. His father was a noted calligrapher, who instilled discipline in him from an early age. He was apprenticed to Kanō Hakkeisai, from whom he took the name Keisai, and after the death of his father he studied under Kikukawa Eizan. His initial works reflected the influence of his mentor, but he soon developed his own style. He became a celebrated ukiyo-e artist who specialized in bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women). His best known works, including his ōkubi-e (“large head pictures”), are considered to be masterpieces of the “decadent” Bunsei Era (1818-1830). In his later years he also signed his works Ikeda Eisen, as well as Ippitsuan. He was known to be a genial supporter of fellow artists, and collaborated on the Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō landscape series  with his contemporary Utagawa Hiroshige. In addition to producing a prolific number of prints he was an accomplished writer, producing biographies of the Forty-seven Ronin and several books including a continuation of the Ukiyo-e Ruiko (History of Prints of the Floating World), a book which documented the lives of the ukiyo-e artists. His supplement is known as “Notes of a Nameless Old Man.” This is the best direct source of information about his life, as he describes himself therein as a dissolute hard-drinker and claims to have been the owner of a brothel in Nezu in the 1830s which had burned down. He also claimed to have apprenticed as a kabuki actor before becoming an artist, although no records exist to corroborate this. He passed away in 1848, with his last major work an illustrated tourist guide to the Edo pleasure district.

Commensurate with age.