Hokkei

Totoya Hokkei was a Japanese artist best known for his prints in the ukiyo-e style. Hokkei was one of Hokusai's first and best-known students and worked in a variety of styles and genres and produced a large body of work in prints, book illustrations, and paintings. His work also appeared under the art names Aoigazono (葵園), Aoigaoka (葵岡) and Kyōsai (拱斎).

Born Iwakubo Tatsuyuki (岩窪 辰行) in 1780 in Edo (modern Tokyo), Hokkei was at first a fishmonger before studying with Kanō Yōsen'in Korenobu, the head of the Kobikichō branch of the Kanō school of painting. Later he became one of ukiyo-e artist Hokusai's first students.

Hokkei's earliest known work appeared about 1800 as illustrations for books of kyōka comic waka poetry, licentious sharebon novels, and hanashibon storybooks. During his peak period in the 1820s and 1830s he produced a large number of prints and book illustration.

Hokkei died in 1850 at age 70. He is buried in Ryūhōji temple in Aoyama. Throughout his life he also used the given names Hatsugorō (初五郎), and Kin'emon (金市右衛門), and the art names Aoigazono (葵園), Aoigaoka (葵岡) and Kyōsai (拱斎). Amongst Hokkei's students are known the names Yashima Gakutei, Nishimoto Keisetsu (西本渓雪), Keiri (渓里), Keiyu (渓由), Keigetsu (渓月), Keishō (渓松), Keisei (渓栖), and Keirin (渓林).

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2024