Japanese Woodblock Print, originally published c.1830s, this Showa era printing from recarved woodblocks

SIZE IN INCHES: oban diptych, approx. 9.75 x 29.5 inches

COMMENTS: In Asian lore the carp is associated with good fortune and perseverance. Although the carp lives primarily in quiet waters, its symbolic meanings have led to a Japanese design convention of showing the fish arching upward, often mounting waterfalls, as in this print.

KEISAI EISEN (1791-1848) was born in Edo into the Ikeda family, the son of a noted calligrapher. He was apprenticed to Kano Hakkeisai, from whom he took the name Keisai, and after the death of his father he studied under Kikugawa Eizan. His initial works reflected the influence of his mentor, but he soon developed his own style.

He produced a number of surimono (prints that were privately issued), erotic prints, and landscapes, including The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaido, which he started and which was completed by Hiroshige. Eisen is most renowned for his bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) which portrayed the subjects as more worldly than those depicted by earlier artists, replacing their grace and elegance with a less studied sensuality. He produced many portraits and full-length studies depicting the fashions of the time.

In addition to producing a prolific number of prints, he was a writer, producing biographies of the Forty-seven Ronin and several books, including a continuation of the Ukiyo-e Ruiko (History of Prints of the Floating World), a book which documented the lives of the ukiyo-e artists. His supplement is known as "Notes of a Nameless Old Man." He describes himself as a dissolute hard-drinker and claims to have been the owner of a brothel in Nezu in the 1830s which had burned down.

Fine, no flaws