Eijudō Hibino at Seventy-one (Toyokuni I)


Eijūdō Hibino at Seventy-one is an ukiyo-e woodblock print dating to around 1799 by Edo period artist Utagawa Toyokuni I. According to its inscription, the print was produced in commemoration of the featured subject, print publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi I's, seventy-first year. The print is part of the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada.

Utagawa Toyokuni I

Utagawa Toyokuni, also known as Toyokuni I, was the second head of the Utagawa school, and one of the most influential and prolific print-makers of the Edo period. From early adolescence, he apprenticed with Utagawa Toyoharu, studying the style of his mentor, as well as those of Chōbunsai Eishi, Utamaro and Eishōsai Chōki. He achieved his greatest commercial success within the genres of bijinga and, more significantly, kabuki-e and yakusha-e. The latter constitute the "overwhelming majority" of his works.
His style is praised for its "powerful and vivid lines," "striking color contrasts," "decorative bombast," and "bold, taut designs." He is credited with innovating polytych formats, and with training prominent pupils, including Kunisada and Kuniyoshi. The copiousness stemming from his success appears to have taken a toll, however. The contemporary consensus is that the quality of his later work "shows a marked decline," and even "degenerated frequently into sheer grotesquerie." Some contend his talent was "predominantly imitative," resulting more from study than "intuitive genius."

Nishimuraya Yohachi

Nishimuraya Yohachi was one of the leading print publishers of the late 18th century. He founded the Nishimuraya Yohachi publishing house, also known as Nishiyo, which operated in Nihonbashi's Bakurochō Nichōme under the shop name Eijudō. The firm's exact dates are unclear, but many art historians date its activity to between c. 1751 and 1860.
According to Andreas Marks, Nishimuraya's "success came from engaging the best artists and providing a broad range of prints to satisfy the public's interest." One of the press' most significant products was Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which appeared between c. 1830 and 1833. In addition to Hokusai and Toyokuni I, Nishimuraya Yohachi published prints by Chobunsai Eishi, Utagawa Kuniyasu and Utagawa Kunisada. Nishimuraya's store is immortalized in the 1787 print Scene of Print Buyers at the Shop of Nishimuraya Yohachi on New Year’s Day by Torii Kiyonaga.

Print details

Depicted in the print is the seventy-one-year-old Nishimuraya Yohachi, seated on his mattress and bedding in front of a painted byōbu folding screen. He is dressed formally in a winter haori coat and kimono, both decorated with a pattern of repeated 寿 characters. Not only does this character signify "longevity," but it is also the second character in Eijudō, the name of Nishimuraya's shop.
On his lap, he holds a folded fan. He sits before a small, black lacquer lectern emblazoned with the mitsu tomoe logo representing his publishing house. Resting on the stand is an open book upon which Nishimuraya's gaze is resting. Given the fan and his posture, it is likely that he is engaging in the New Year's convention of reciting nō plays, an intended indication of the elegance and erudition of this "man of taste."

Text & symbolism

The text appearing in the upper left area of the print repeats a popular verse or proverb relating to Japanese New Year:
The imagery of the verse is echoed in the screen design, which features an outline of Mount Fuji, a soaring hawk and an eggplant. These three elements belong to the hatsuyume or 'First Dream' tradition, a belief that, when seen in order in the first dream of the year, these items augur good fortune. This was a popular notion by the mid-seventeenth century, and is a common motif in prints and paintings from the period. These images continue to appear on new year greeting cards to this day.
The auspiciousness of these objects can be attributed to a variety of factors. In Edo era Japan, hawks were considered "natural emblems of the Japanese warrior class due to their keen eyesight, their predatory nature, and their boldness." The homophone 高 means 'great' or 'high.' The eggplant has long been considered to have associations with fertility, and is also a homophone for 成す, "to accomplish; to achieve; to succeed in." 'Fuji', when written with the homophone kanji characters 不 and 死, can be interpreted to mean 'immortality.' When taken as a group, the combination of the syllables fuji, taka, nasu can also be read as homophones for "unparalleled success."
Some have suggested that the text's calligraphy and even the images on the screen backdrop may have been done by Nishimuraya Yohachi himself. According to the Museum Angewandte Kunst, Nishimuraya's involvement is hinted at by "the fact that a kakihan or follows Eijudō's signature."

Fuji-kō

Nishimuraya Yohachi is known to have been a member of the Fuji-kō, an Edo period cult centred around Mount Fuji. Founded by an ascetic named Hasegawa Kakugyō, the cult venerated the mountain as a female deity, and encouraged its members to climb it. In doing so, they would be reborn, "purified and... able to find happiness." The cult waned in the Meiji period, and, though it persists to this day, it has been subsumed into Shintō sects.
The publisher's association with the Fuji-kō gives clues not only to imagery in his portrait, but also to his eagerness to participate in the production of Hokusai's series celebrating Mount Fuji.

Memorialization

Many art historians suggest that the portrait was likely a private commission based on the print's content and the fact that it has no kiwame-in censor seal. The precise reason for the print's production is less clear, however. Some describe it as a New Year's gift from the publisher to friends, others feel it was issued to "celebrate both the New Year and Nishimura Yohachi’s longevity," still others think it was an acknowledgement of Nishimuraya's 71st birthday. It is also possible that it was issued to memorialize the publisher having experienced hatsuyume.
What is fairly universally accepted is that it is a very rare and notable work, being "one of the few ichimai-e of the 18th century to feature neither a bijin nor an actor." There is an ukiyo-e genre known as shini-e devoted to memorializing the dead, particularly artists. Alternatively, the nigao-e genre of 'likeness pictures' constitutes portraits—often head-shots—of mainly actors. There is, however, within the universe of Edo era ukiyo-e, no tradition of personal portraiture of non-celebrities as exemplified in this print.

Date

The ROM dates the print to c. 1799, which is in line with the data offered by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt. Both the Honolulu Museum of Art and the British Museum date the print slightly earlier at 1797-1798. The Art Institute of Chicago narrows the date to 1798.
Art historians are also divided in their estimates of the print's age. Clark believes the print to be from 1797-1798 based on the similarity of its signature to those on other works known to be from that period. Volker links it to "about 1790," while Newland describes the image as having been produced "in the 1790s."

Provenance

The print was donated to the ROM by Sir Edmund Walker, long-time president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and first Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the ROM. Walker began collecting Japanese art in the 1870s, making him one of the earliest North American collectors. He bought many pieces in New York in the 1870s and '80s, and during a trip to London in 1909. In 1919, after travelling to Japan, China and Korea, he was named Honorary Consul-General of Japan for Toronto.

Copies in other collections

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston