Lot 306: KOBAYASHI EITAKU (SENSAI, 1843-1890) Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1870-1

KOBAYASHI EITAKU (SENSAI, 1843-1890) Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1870-1890 Kakejiku (hanging scroll); ink and colours on silk mounted in silk with calico joge (top and bottom strips), depicting within a roundel cropped at each side a beauty emerging from beneath a mosquito net, her kimono boldly decorated with bat motifs, the lower half of the scroll occupied by a flowering omodaka (water plantain), the roundel sealed Sensai and with a second undeciphered seal at the lower left of the scroll; with a wooden tomobako storage box inscribed outside Sensai hitsu kaya bijin zu (Picture of a beauty and mosquito net, brushed by Sensai). Overall: 141cm x 32.5cm (55½in x 12¾in); image: 70.5cm x 19cm (29½in x 7½in). (2).

Kobayashi Eitaku was born in Edo, apprenticed at the age of 13 to Eitoku (a member of the Kano academy) and is said to have been briefly in the employ the Ii family of Hikone. After Ii Naosuke was assassinated in 1860, he eventually returned to Edo (Tokyo), worked as a newspaper illustrator and was possibly mentored by Kawanabe Kyosai. Eitaku deployed his prodigious talents in a wide range of genres including daring erotica, dramatic scenes from Japanese history, and the type of refined Ukiyo-e style painting seen here.