Eishi | Takigawa of the Ogiya, at the First Sale of the New Year Celebration in the Parlor
鳥文斎栄之 Chobunsai Eishi (1756-1829)
青楼美人撰 初买座敷之图 扇屋泷川
Takigawa of the Ogiya, at the First Sale of the New Year Celebration in the Parlor , from the series A Comparison of Selected Beauties of the Pleasure Quarters
1793
木版画 | 纵绘大判 | 38.5cm x 25cm
Woodblock-print | Oban tate-e | 38.5cm x 25cm
轻微褪色和黄化；非常轻微的中间折痕
Slight fading and toning; slight centerfold
纤细、优雅、修长，鸟文斋荣之笔下的美人，个个都有着傲人的“十二头身”。本作以吉原游廓中扇屋家花魁泷川为原型，勾勒出一位亭亭玉立，满面春风的高挑美人儿。通过画题中的“初买”二字可以得知，此时是泷川姑娘正月里的首次营业。身着一袭新裁锦衣，裙袂似春水流转，纤纤玉手微旋玳瑁笄，眉梢眼角说不尽的万种风情，单是往那儿一立，巧笑倩兮，就不知要迷倒多少愿为她一掷千金的主顾。
值得一提的是，荣之还以本作为母版，在其后创作了一款黑云母摺戏画版本。其人物细节与本作无异，仅是在背景上摺印有占据全画四分之三面积的黑云母，好似一道未升起的天鹅绒幕布，在保持优雅气质的同时，给画面增添了几分暧昧的意趣。
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Chobunsai Eishi (1756-1829)
The women are beautiful, so very beautiful, and as the years went on they got taller and thinner and more elegant. Indeed, they hardly looked of this world.
They were the ever-lengthening visions of Chobunsai Eishi, seen by many as a rival to Utamaro and Kiyonaga. But truly, he was his own man, and his story is quite unusual in the annals of Ukiyoe lives.
Also known by the given name Hosoda, Eishi’s life and career took a circular journey. He was born in 1756 into a high-ranking samurai family — so high-ranking in fact, that he himself received an annual salary of 500 koku a year. (A koku was cost of rice for one man for one year, and was the main monatory measurement of Edo times.) This meant he was quite wealthy, at least by the standards of Japanese woodblock print designers; so many Ukiyoe artists, despite the fame granted them by posterity, were quite poor throughout their lives.
Eishi held a position in the Shogun Tokugawa Leheru’s palace, but gave it up to pursue painting in the Kano school. His first known prints date from 1785, and a few years later he left the Shogunate to pursue art full time. He became known for his prints of beautiful women — bijin — and was soon as equally renowned as his rivals, Utamaro and Kiyonaga. His first known designs featured courtersans, usually standing, and later he focused more on the daily routines of women, often seated, from other walks of life.
As the years progressed, his women became taller and thinner and always standing — more stereotypical examples of the ideal of female beauty than realistic depictions of it. (Edo people were actually somewhat short and compact.) As they grew upwards, the women’s necks lengthened and their heads got smaller and smaller, as least relative to their willowy bodies. They backgrounds tended to be spare, with a muted palette, quietly emphasizing the figures at the forefront of the designs.
Eishi eventually returned to his first love, painting, and by the end of his career focused on it. His paintings became sought after in the Shogun’s court. And so he once again returned to that storied world. In 1800 the Empress acquired one of his paintings, and from 1801 he dedicated himself to painting full-time.
As I said, full circle.
He died in 1829.