Prints in Collection
The Simple Story
The catalog of the Worcester Art Museum's exhibition In Battle's Light: Woodblock Prints of Japan's Early Modern Wars1 provides the following profile on Kobayashi Toshimitsu:| Kobayashi Toshimitsu (second half of nineteenth century) Kobayashi Toshimitsu, an early student of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, designed a small series of battle prints in 1875 "with the assistance of Yoshitoshi," Satsuma Rebellion (1877) prints, and genre scenes. He is listed as deceased on the 1898 Yoshitoshi memorial. |
* The "active" dates are taken from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston online database for the artist Kobayashi Toshimitsu. Of course, if the artist was "listed as deceased on the 1898 Yoshitoshi memorial," he could not still be active in 1904, hence my added "?" after the 1904 date.
The Not So Simple Story
However, as with a number of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's (1839-1892) students, there is some confusion about the identity of this artist as he used several different artist names (gō) during his career. In addition, it is possible that several different students of Yoshitoshi’s used the artist name Toshimitsu. The Japanese Wikipedia entry for 進斎年光 Shinsai Toshimitsu, states that this name was used by a number of Yoshitoshi's disciples and could be any of the following three artists: 小林年参 [Kobayashi Toshikazu], 大月年光 and 福島年光 [Fukushima Toshimitsu].2Keyes, in his dissertation on Yoshitoshi, provides the following information on two of Yoshitoshi's students with the gō Toshimitsu:3
Kobayashi Toshimitsu 小林年充, 年参
Gō: Kōsai 高斎
An early pupil who used the name 年充 in 1874 and 年参 on prints in 1875 and 1876; named as an assistant on prints of the mid-1870s; designed a series of small battle pictures in 1875 “with the assistance of Yoshitoshi;” not named on the Kuniyoshi memorial ; named as deceased on the Yoshitoshi memorial (of 1898.) Possibly the same as the below Toshimitsu.
Kobayashi (or Furubayashi) Toshimitsu 古林年光
| PN: Hidenari [actually read Eisei] (栄成) |  |
| Gō: Shinsai 進斎 and Himizugaoka |  |
Also said to have used the name Toshimine; designed pictures of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 and of genre subjects around 1880; named as deceased on the Yoshitoshi memorial.
Notes:
"PN" means "personal names," and includes familiar names (tsushō and zokumyō) and informal names (na)
Notes:
"PN" means "personal names," and includes familiar names (tsushō and zokumyō) and informal names (na)
Gō are secondary art names which usually appear on seals or before an art name in signatures.
1 In Battle's Light: Woodblock Prints of Japan's Early Modern Wars, Elizabeth de Sabato Swinton, Worcester Art Museum, 1991, p. 58.
2 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%80%B2%E6%96%8E%E5%B9%B4%E5%85%89
3 Courage and Silence: A Study of the Life and Color Woodblock Prints of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi: 1839-1892, Roger Keyes, 1982, p. 550, 551, 556.
4 Ibid. p. 540.
3 Courage and Silence: A Study of the Life and Color Woodblock Prints of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi: 1839-1892, Roger Keyes, 1982, p. 550, 551, 556.
4 Ibid. p. 540.
Signatures and seals attributed to Toshimitsu
 應需 進斎 画 1876 (Waseda University Library Bunko10 8477) |  應需 進斎 蛾 Seal: unread 1877 (IHL Cat. #447) |  應需 進斎 1877 (IHL Cat. #448) |  應需 年光 Seal: unread 1879 (MFA, Boston 2000.221) |  應需 年光 画 (Artelino archive) |
* Guy Pepermans noted that "the character for “ga”, usually “画” , is here “蛾” which means literally “moth” in Japanese." Noel Chiappa in a followup comment stated "This kind of homophone character substitution is common in woodblock prints."
 Shinsai Toshimitsu 進斎 年光 Seal: Shinsai no in, 1894 (MFA, Boston 2000.368) |  年光 Seal: Suidō shujin 1894 (MFA, Boston 2000.23) |  Seal: Suidô shujin 1894 (In Battle's Light: Woodblock Prints of Japan's Early Modern Wars, Elizabeth de Sabato Swinton, Worcester Art Museum, 1991, p. 59.) |  進斎 年光 Seal: Suidō shujin (Artelino archive) |  Toshimitsu年光 (IHL Cat. #429)  Toshimitsu ga 年光 画 (IHL Cat. #430) (appearing on IHL Cat. #s 429, 430 from the series Brocade Pictures of Moral Education) |
7/21/2019
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