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Biographical Data

Biography

Narazaki Eishō 楢崎 栄昭  (1864-1936)

Source: Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, University of Hawaii Press,1992, p. 107; Japanese Wood-block Prints, Shizuya Fujikake, Japan Travel Bureau, 1938, p. 94;Georgetown University website http://library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/guac/japan_04/illustrations.htm
His given name is also seen written in English as Yeishō [榮昌]. He used the art names Fuyō 扶陽 (1916-1922) and Eishō (1922-1936). He learned the art of woodblock printing from Kobayashi Eitaku (1843-1890) and while working at the Printing Bureau of the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo, he learned copperplate printing from the Director, the Italian artist Eduardo Chiossone (1833-1898).¹

In 1916 he began making prints for a foreign clientele under the pseudonym of Fuyō.  In 1922 he assumed the name Eishō and set to work producing artistic prints.²  Later, he was among the artists who worked for the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962) in shin hanga style. Woodblocks by Eishō published by Watanabe include Inside Asakusa Kannon Temple (his best-known work), New Diet Building, Meiji Shrine, and Rissekiho Beach, Korea. 

¹ Japan hired thousands of Western scientists, technicians and artists during the Meiji period.  For the art sector, the Italians hadan influential role in teaching Western arts in Japan.
² While Fujikake Shizuya in Japanese Wood-block Prints writes that the artist assumed the name Narazaki Eishō in 1922, the publisher Watanabe maintains that he did not assume that name until 1932.