Eizan | Fashionable Scene at Low Tide at the South Station
菊川英山 Kikukawa Eizan（1787-1867）
風流南驛汐干
Fashionable Scene at Low Tide at the South Station
1810s
木版画 | 三联续绘-纵绘大判 | 38.2cm x 25.7cm x 3
Woodblock-print | Triptych Oban tate-e triptych | 38.2cm x 25.7cm x 3
早期版次；颜色鲜艳；品相非常好
Fine impression, color and condition
Shinagawa, now a glittering corner of Tokyo featuring multiple corporate headquarters, was once a fashionable pleasure district on the outskirts of town, and the first stop on the Tokaido highway to Kyoto. Many artists, such as Hiroshige, portrayed the teahouses that lined the road on one side, and the expansive bay on the other.
Here Kikukawa Eizen gives us a wonderful view from the second floor of a brothel, with three couplets of courtesans with elaborate headdresses chatting amongst themselves. It appears to be daytime, and in the background we see the sails of fishing boats and coastal freighters dotting the horizon, and fisherman scampering around the beach to collect shellfish. But the foreground is much more interesting.
What are these six beauties talking about? They wear intricate kimonos of various swirling and geometric designs. All around them we see hints that, despite the early hour, lots of merrymaking has already occurred in that room. On the tatami-mat floor we spy a man’s pipe, a colorful tenugi, a tea pot and, on the veranda, a package of tissue papers known as onko-togami, or “paper for the honorable act.”
In the right panel, one of the women has stopped playing her samisen and covers her mouth enticingly as she shares some gossip with her companion – perhaps something juicy about the other ladies just across the room?
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
菊川英山 Kikukawa Eizan（1787-1867）
風流南驛汐干
Fashionable Scene at Low Tide at the South Station
1810s
木版画 | 三联续绘-纵绘大判 | 38.2cm x 25.7cm x 3
Woodblock-print | Triptych Oban tate-e triptych | 38.2cm x 25.7cm x 3
早期版次；颜色鲜艳；品相非常好
Fine impression, color and condition
Shinagawa, now a glittering corner of Tokyo featuring multiple corporate headquarters, was once a fashionable pleasure district on the outskirts of town, and the first stop on the Tokaido highway to Kyoto. Many artists, such as Hiroshige, portrayed the teahouses that lined the road on one side, and the expansive bay on the other.
Here Kikukawa Eizen gives us a wonderful view from the second floor of a brothel, with three couplets of courtesans with elaborate headdresses chatting amongst themselves. It appears to be daytime, and in the background we see the sails of fishing boats and coastal freighters dotting the horizon, and fisherman scampering around the beach to collect shellfish. But the foreground is much more interesting.
What are these six beauties talking about? They wear intricate kimonos of various swirling and geometric designs. All around them we see hints that, despite the early hour, lots of merrymaking has already occurred in that room. On the tatami-mat floor we spy a man’s pipe, a colorful tenugi, a tea pot and, on the veranda, a package of tissue papers known as onko-togami, or “paper for the honorable act.”
In the right panel, one of the women has stopped playing her samisen and covers her mouth enticingly as she shares some gossip with her companion – perhaps something juicy about the other ladies just across the room?
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
菊川英山 Kikukawa Eizan（1787-1867）
風流南驛汐干
Fashionable Scene at Low Tide at the South Station
1810s
木版画 | 三联续绘-纵绘大判 | 38.2cm x 25.7cm x 3
Woodblock-print | Triptych Oban tate-e triptych | 38.2cm x 25.7cm x 3
早期版次；颜色鲜艳；品相非常好
Fine impression, color and condition
Shinagawa, now a glittering corner of Tokyo featuring multiple corporate headquarters, was once a fashionable pleasure district on the outskirts of town, and the first stop on the Tokaido highway to Kyoto. Many artists, such as Hiroshige, portrayed the teahouses that lined the road on one side, and the expansive bay on the other.
Here Kikukawa Eizen gives us a wonderful view from the second floor of a brothel, with three couplets of courtesans with elaborate headdresses chatting amongst themselves. It appears to be daytime, and in the background we see the sails of fishing boats and coastal freighters dotting the horizon, and fisherman scampering around the beach to collect shellfish. But the foreground is much more interesting.
What are these six beauties talking about? They wear intricate kimonos of various swirling and geometric designs. All around them we see hints that, despite the early hour, lots of merrymaking has already occurred in that room. On the tatami-mat floor we spy a man’s pipe, a colorful tenugi, a tea pot and, on the veranda, a package of tissue papers known as onko-togami, or “paper for the honorable act.”
In the right panel, one of the women has stopped playing her samisen and covers her mouth enticingly as she shares some gossip with her companion – perhaps something juicy about the other ladies just across the room?
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
Kikukawa Eizan (1787-1867)
Kikugawa Eizan can be considered the true heir to Utamaro, even if he never studied with that legendary master of beauties.
But history records he was deeply enamored of Utamaro’s work, and when Utamaro died, it was Eizan, and not one of Utamaro’s students, who truly filled the void. His bijin-ga prints paid hommage to the master’s style, especially their poses, but their narrow faces and slim bodies were perfected by Eizan. The kimonos in which he dressed his women were often quite intricate, as were their hairstyles, with both providing fascinating and useful glimpses of the styles in the ever-stylish Edo of the time.
Eizan was born to a painter, and in the end of his life it was apparently painting that warmed his passion most. He abruptly stopped designing prints around 1830, when he was 43, but kept painting for the rest of his life. He died at 81 in 1867.