Kikukawa Eizan

Who They Were

Kikukawa Eizan (菊川英山, きくかわ えいざん) was a Japanese painter and designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, active during the Edo period (1603–1868). He was born in Edo in 1787 and died on July 17, 1867. His father was Kikukawa Eiji, a minor painter of the Kanō school, and Eizan first studied under him before moving on to other teachers.

Eizan is classified as a xylographer, an ukiyo-e artist, and a painter. He is best known for his prints of beautiful women, a genre called bijin-ga. He should not be confused with Harukawa Eizan, a different ukiyo-e print designer active in the 1790s.

Life and Career

Eizan began his artistic training under his father, Kikukawa Eiji, who worked in the Kanō school tradition. He subsequently studied with Suzuki Nanrei (1775–1844) of the Shijō school. He is also believed to have studied with the ukiyo-e artist Totoya Hokkei (1790–1850).

Eizan produced numerous woodblock prints of beautiful women in the 1830s, a period that marked the height of his printmaking activity. After that decade, he abandoned printmaking in favour of painting. He was left-handed, which was unusual in Japan at that time.

Eizan was the most prolific, longest-lived, and ultimately the best of the late followers of Kitagawa Utamaro who attempted to carry on the master's bijin style after Utamaro's death in 1806. Along with Tsukimaro and Utamaro II, Eizan was often dismissed by connoisseurs as a plagiarist of Utamaro's late style. In fact, his work develops from a close identification with a leading master to a studied independence, and contains pieces of remarkable beauty and interest.

Why They Matter

Eizan matters because he represents the last manifestation of the classical ukiyo-e style in bijin work. His prints retain the sensitivities and lyricism that mark the Utamaro style, with harmonious colours and graceful lines. This stands in contrast to the earthier realism and more overt sensuality found in the work of contemporaries such as Kunisada and Keisai Eisen.

As Eizan reached artistic maturity, he began to develop his own figural style, still focused for the most part on prints of beautiful women. His work preserves the elegance and ethereal quality of the earlier tradition. After him, one senses the introduction of a different aesthetic in ukiyo-e: harsher colours, angular lines, and a greater emphasis on the material weight of earthly life rather than its transformation into something of elegance.

Eizan's position is analogous to that of Toyokuni I in actor prints. Just as Toyokuni I was the last classical master of the actor print, Eizan was the last classical master of the bijin print. His work marks the end of an era in ukiyo-e before the aesthetic shift that followed.

The Name in Japanese

The name is written 菊川英山 in kanji. The kana reading is きくかわ えいざん, and the romaji is Kikukawa Eizan.

The family name is 菊川 (Kikukawa). It breaks down as follows:

• 菊 (きく, kiku) — chrysanthemum
• 川 (かわ, kawa) — river

The given name is 英山 (Eizan). It breaks down as follows:

• 英 (えい, ei) — excellent, heroic, or distinguished
• 山 (ざん, zan) — mountain

The reading of 山 as "zan" here is the on'yomi, the Chinese-derived reading, which is typical in given names. The family name 菊川 uses the kun'yomi, the native Japanese reading, for both characters. This mix of readings within a single name is common in Japanese personal names.

The surname Kikukawa was shared by Eizan's father, Kikukawa Eiji, indicating a family line of artists. The given name Eizan, with its meaning of "excellent mountain," fits the artistic tradition of adopting elegant and evocative names.

Legacy

Eizan's legacy is tied to his role as the last significant carrier of Utamaro's bijin-ga tradition. After his retirement from printmaking in the 1830s, the classical style of beautiful-woman prints gave way to a new aesthetic. His later career as a painter is less well documented, but his prints from the 1830s remain the core of his reputation.

Modern assessments have revised the earlier dismissal of Eizan as a mere plagiarist. His work is now recognised as containing pieces of remarkable beauty and interest, developing from imitation of Utamaro toward a studied independence. His longevity, spanning from 1787 to 1867, meant he witnessed the full arc of ukiyo-e's classical period and its transformation into something new.

The confusion with Harukawa Eizan, an unrelated artist active in the 1790s, has persisted in some catalogues, but the two are distinct figures. Kikukawa Eizan's place in the history of ukiyo-e is secure as the final master of the classical bijin style, a bridge between the age of Utamaro and the very different world of later nineteenth-century printmaking.