Born in 1756, Chobunsai Eishi was the eldest son of the Chancellor of the Exchequer of Edo. Unlike other ‘Ukiyo-e’ artists who belonged to the merchant class, Eishi belonged to the Fujwara clan of the Samurai class. Due to his father’s influence and position in the society, he received his primary training in arts at the Kano-school from Eisenin Michinobu, a government employee of Edo and an arts teacher. Eishi worked for several years as a household official and court painter for a Shogun (Tokugawa leharu), on a monthly stipend of 500 koku. The Shogun christened the artist as “Chobunsai Eishi,” which means, “he glorifies.”
By 1786, Eishi’s ardent fascination for plebian Ukiyo-e style found him a place at the Torii school, as a student of Bunryusai. He introduced his first Ukiyoe work in “Kibyoshi” (a picture book). The full-length prints of women in elegant forms, characterized the artist’s creations. However, Eishi’s Ukiyo-e women appeared quiet, motionless, and expressionless, which was believed as his influence of the image of ideal Samurai women. A few of the Chobunsai’s works of Ukiyo-e women are “Women in Boats near the Mimeguri Shrine on the Sumida River” (1790), “Two women on a Balcony”(1790-1793), “Women beside a stream chasing Fireflies” and “Poetess in a Carriage Samurai Buyer.”
By the time he was forty, Eishi started elongating the faces of the Ukiyoe women, until they were one-twelfth the height of the rest of the figure. This facial transition was not appreciated. This criticism put a stop to his obsession with printmaking and stirred him towards creating scrolls and alcove painting, depicting the images of courtesans and the city life for the affluent. Empress Gosakuramachi was one of his buyers for his work titled “Sumidagawa Landscape.” This indeed was an extraordinary honor for an Ukiyo-e artist. Highly skilled and talented Chobunsai Eishi’s paintings were shown to the imperial community.
For quite a long span, Eishi’s work was highly influenced by Torii Kiyonaga, Katsukawa Shunsho, Kitagawa Utamaro, and Kubo Shunman. It was by only 1792 or 1793 that he began with his originality. By this time, his works reflected erotic pictures & prints based on Japanese themes and Chinese mythology. The artist also used techniques from the kno-ha for his hand-drawings. Eishi’s magnum opus is “Six Selected Beauties of the Green Houses,” where he has individually compared the beauty of six courtesans fro