Background
Ewaga Tsuginoshin was born in 1851 in the small village of Higashiju, Sakai, Fukui.
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Ewaga Tsuginoshin
Edit Profile江川次之進
Career
He was interested in type printing in his youth, he established the Egawa Type Founding Factory in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, around 1888. A pioneer in type printing in Japan, he evolved the gydsho (semi-cursive) style of types, modeled after the calligraphical style of Kiei Hisanaga. This was the first cursive-style in type printing in Japan. In the late 1880s, Egawa decided to design a new typeface, modeled on a cursive style of Chinese writing called gyosho. But cutting the alternating thick and thin lines proved nearly impossible. After much trial and error and thousands of yen, Egawa succeeded in producing gyosho and in 1889 made several sizes available.
Egawa’s triumph was cel-ebrated for many years, but when other type designers took the forefront of Japanese typography, Egawa’s gyosho was forgotten. Next, Egawa decided to sell presses made by Nakajima Ikusaburo of Osaka. Nakajima, it may be remembered, was one of those who worked on the Hirano press in the early 1870s. Then at the turn of the century, Egawa, at the peak of his business prowess, took on Motobayashi Isakichi, another press maker from the Hirano days.
In 1899 and in 1900, Motobayashi made printing presses for Egawa. At about this time, Motobayashi began making bad business deals and dragging Egawa’s good name through the mud. Fortunately, the printing community rallied behind Egawa, and Egawa’s reputation was restored. Egawa died soon after in 1912, the last year of the Meiji reign.
Career
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1888