Comments:
Personal name Hanbei; pupil of Ryukôsai (recorded on a print dated 1798; also cited as a pupil in Denki sakusho (1843) by the playwright Nishizawa Ippô); Osaka address Shimanouchi,
Shimizumachi (near an entertainment district south of the Yodo River); composed poems for his own works and those of others; closely
associated with the theater (his devotion cited in the aforementioned Denki sakusho, and one of his literary pseudonyms was Gijokojin, "Theater lover"); other noms de plume were Naniwa gako
("Artist of Osaka") and Eirakujin ("One who likes to compose poems").
Important print designer of the early period; worked mostly in the hosoban format, but also produced the earliest known chûban in
the mature Osaka style (prints dated to 9/1799), and a small number of much admired illustrated books; one surimono is known; few works have survived
(single sheets amount to perhaps as few as 20-25 designs), and any work by the artist is rarely encountered outside of institutional collections.
Pupils included Yuko; Roko; Sekkasai; Shinkô; Hokushû.
See RSS in the Bibliography.
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