Yoshiiku | Long waited beautiful bath, Annual customs of the present day

Ochiai Yoshiiku (1883-1904)

A student of Kuniyoshi, a newspaper illustrator, and a master of satirical Ukiyoe, Ochiai Yoshiiku was literally born into the Floating World: his father ran a popular teahouse in Edo. It was only a few short years after his birth in 1833 that he joined Kuniyoshi’s studio in the 1840s. His first known works were backgrounds for the master’s designs.

 Life looked promising indeed for the young artist. Not only was he now in the famed Utagawa School, but his first actor and beauty portraits gained note. His career as a satirist followed, especially after Kuniyoshi’s death, and he worked as the chief illustrator for Tokyo newspapers during the freewheeling early days of Japanese newspaper journalism.

But after his second newspaper folded, he returned to print making, and now success eluded him. But tragedy found him, again and again. Of 10 children, nine died. His prints were now out of step with modern society and failed to sell. His last design dates from 1903. He died in 1904.