Eishi | Viewing Cherry Blossoms at Asuka Hill
鳥文斎栄之 Chobunsai Eishi (1756-1829)
飞鸟山花见
Viewing Cherry Blossoms at Asuka Hill
1789-90
木版画 | 三联续绘-纵绘大判 | 36.5cm x 25cm x 3
Woodblock-print | Triptych-Oban-tate-e | 36.5cm x 25cm x 3
品相非常好；早期版次；底部边缘有轻微修剪
Very good color and condition; early impression; each sheet is a little trimmed on the bottom
SOLD
花见，日本传统赏花习俗，起源据传可追溯至遥远的奈良时代（710-794）。彼时的赏花还是贵族活动，且观赏对象为引自中国的梅花；平安时代（794-1192）起，花期短暂，盛极而凋的樱花逐渐成为花见的主角；步入江户时代，日本樱花品种得到进一步改良，民间花见习俗蔚然成风。1720年，第八代幕府将军德川吉宗下令在隅田川两岸和江户城北部的飞鸟山大量种植樱花，并鼓励百姓观赏游览。直至今日，这些地区都依然是东京的赏樱胜地，每逢春日，游人如织。
早春三月，樱放枝头。一群身着靓丽衣装的姑娘结伴来到樱之名所飞鸟山，一边漫步于茶屋间，一边欣赏着绯红的樱花。人美花艳，言笑晏晏，构图虽满，却是规整优雅，丝毫不显拥挤。且因早期的锦绘色彩并不强调阴影与渐变，大块清爽柔和的色彩应和着明晰飘逸的线条，复古又新奇，直让观者也想要步入画中，一同乐游。
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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.