Keisai Eisen
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Eisen1.jpg/260px-Eisen1.jpg)
Keisai Eisen (渓斎 英泉, 1790–1848) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist who specialised in bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women). His best works, including his ōkubi-e ("large head pictures"), are considered to be masterpieces of the "decadent" Bunsei Era (1818–1830). He was also known as Ikeda Eisen, and wrote under the name of Ippitsuan.
Biography
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Keisai_Eisen%2C_woodblock_print%2C_1830.jpg/220px-Keisai_Eisen%2C_woodblock_print%2C_1830.jpg)
Eisen was born in Edo into the Ikeda family, the son of a noted calligrapher. 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 produced a number of surimono (prints that were privately issued), erotic prints, and landscapes, including The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō, which he started and which was completed by Hiroshige. Eisen is most renowned for his bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) which portrayed the subjects as more worldly than those depicted by earlier artists, replacing their grace and elegance with a less studied sensuality. He produced many portraits and full-length studies depicting the fashions of the time.
In addition to producing a prolific number of prints, he was a 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." He describes himself as a dissolute hard-drinker and claims to have been the owner of a brothel in Nezu in the 1830s which had burned down.
Gallery
- Courtesan, c. 1808
- Water dragon, c. 1830–48
- Winter landscape
- Signatures of Keisai Eisen reading from left to right: "Eisen ga" (英泉 画), "Keisai" (渓斎), and "Keisai Eisen ga" (渓斎 英泉 画)
External links
- Keisai Eisen by Honolulu Museum of Art
References
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Dan McKee. "Keisai Eisen". Retrieved 30 November 2006.
- John Fiorillo (1999). "Keisai Eisen". Archived from the original on 31 January 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2006.
- Rasch, Carsten: Keisai Eisen, Berlin 2015.
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- Ukiyo-e
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- List of ukiyo-e terms
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of 17–19th centuries
- Asayama school
- Eishi school
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- Harukawa Eizan school
- Harunobu school
- Hasegawa school
- Hishikawa school
- Hokusai school
- Ippitsusai Bunchō school
- Ishikawa Toyonobu school
- Kaigetsudō school
- Katsukawa school
- Kawamata school
- Keisai Eisen school
- Keisai Eisen
- Kitagawa school
- Kitao school
- Miyagawa school
- Nishikawa school
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- Not associated with any school
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- Masao Maeda
- Senpan Maekawa
- Maki Haku
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- Kōshirō Onchi
- Kiichi Okamoto
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- Toko Shinoda
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- Japonisme
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- Impressionism
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- Post-Impressionism
- Art Nouveau
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