Ekin

A town painter from Tosa (Kochi Prefecture) who was active from the end of the Edo period to the early Meiji period. Nicknamed Kinzo, he was familiarly known by the name Ekin, which means painter Kinzo. His surname was Kimura, later he was Hirose, and at one time he went by the names Hayashi, Ryuei, Mitaka, Doi, Tomotakesai, and Jakuo. Born the son of a hairdresser in Shinichi-cho, a town under the castle in Tosa, he aspired to be an artist from an early age, and studied under the domain's official painter Ikezoe Yoshimasa, where his artistic talent was recognized.

At the age of 17, he accompanied Yamauchi Tokuhime, the daughter of the feudal lord, to Edo, where he learned the Kano school of painting from the shogunate's official painter Kano Dohaku, and was also deeply influenced by the decadent expression of late ukiyo-e. Three years later, he returned to Japan and was appointed as the domain's official painter, but a few years later he lost his position due to a scandal (one theory is that he forged works by Kano Tan'yu and others), and thereafter began his Ekin period as an independent painter. One of his representative works is the Daichochin-e, which decorated the grounds and approach to shrines during the summer Yoimiya festival. It is a kabuki play painting painted with mud paint on a two-panel folding screen measuring approximately one ken (about 1.8 meters) square, but the unrestrained brushwork and vivid colors that resemble a smattering of primary colors create a unique pictorial world that combines the expression of intense passion with generous caricature.

[Tadashi Kobayashi]

"Ekin" by Tamotsu Hirosue and Kinichiro Fujimura (1968, Miraisha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

幕末から明治初年に活躍した土佐（高知県）の町絵師。通称を金蔵といい、絵師金蔵という意味の絵金の名で親しまれた。姓は木村、のち弘瀬(ひろせ)、一時林を名のり、名は柳栄または美高、洞意(どうい)、友竹斎、雀翁(じゃくおう)などと号した。土佐の城下新市町の髪結いの子として生まれ、幼少から画業に志し、藩のお抱え絵師池添美雅(いけぞえよしまさ)に師事して画才を認められた。

　17歳のとき、藩主山内容堂の息女徳姫の供に加わり江戸へ出、幕府の御用絵師狩野洞白(かのうどうはく)について狩野派の画法を習得、同時に末期浮世絵の退廃的表現にも深く影響された。3年後に帰国して藩のお抱え絵師に取り立てられるが、数年後にスキャンダル（一説に狩野探幽(たんゆう)らの偽作を行うという）によりその地位を失い、以後、在野の画工としての絵金時代に入る。代表作として、夏の宵宮(よいみや)に神社の境内や参道を飾った台提灯絵(だいちょうちんえ)がある。ほぼ1間（約1.8メートル）四方の二枚折り屏風(びょうぶ)仕立てに泥絵の具で描かれた歌舞伎(かぶき)芝居絵だが、奔放な筆致と原色をばらまいたような鮮烈な彩色によって、激情の表出とおおらかな戯画化をあわせ果たした独得の絵画世界を創出している。

［小林　忠］

『広末保・藤村欣市郎著『絵金』（1968・未来社）』

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