Chobunsai Eishi - Courtesan Itsubomi - (Oriental Art) - Framed picture 11 x 14

Ch?bunsai Eishi was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. Born to a well-off samurai family that was part of the Fujiwara clan, Eishi left his employ with the Shogun Ieharu to pursue art. His early works were prints were mostly bijin-ga portraits of beautiful women in a style akin to Kiyonaga and Utamaro.

He was a prolific painter, and from 1801 gave up print designing to devote himself to painting.

How Eishi took to art is unknown. He appears to have studied under Kan? Michinobu of the Kan? school of painting, from whom he likely was given the art name Eishi—though tradition holds he received the name from Shogun Ieharu. About 1784 he left the official service of the Shogun and began to train under Torii Bunry?sai, an ukiyo-e artist about whom almost nothing is known.

Eishi's earliest works were colour nishiki-e prints. The subjects are such literary fare as The Tale of Genji and are in subdued tones, as required by contemporary laws against ostentation. He went on to specialized in bijin-ga portraits of beautiful women, of which he produced a number of series. His most prominent rival at first was Kiyonaga; later his work competed against that of Utamaro.

His manner of depicting women went through stages: the earliest were of courtesans much in the manner of Kiyonaga; then seated women performing daily activities such as reading or writing, set against bright backgrounds; later, slender women standing against minimal, subdued backgrounds. Eishi depicted gradually taller and more slender women until, in the latest prints, their heads were one-twelfth the height of the figures; more so even than Kiyonaga, whose reputation is for tall, slender beauties.