Hokkei Totoya

Background

Hokkei Totoya in 1780 in Tokyo, Japan.

Education

Hokkei was at first a fishmonger before studying with Kanō Yōsen'in Korenobu, the head of the Kobikichō branch of the Kanō school of painting. Later he became one of ukiyo-e artist Hokusai's first students.

Career

Hokkei's earliest known work appeared about 1800 as illustrations for books of kyōka comic waka poetry, licentious sharebon novels, and hanashibon storybooks. During his peak period in the 1820s and 1830s he produced a large number of prints and book illustration.

Throughout his life he also used the given names Hatsugorō (初五郎), and Kin'emon (金市右衛門), and the art names Aoigazono (葵園), Aoigaoka (葵岡) and Kyōsai (拱斎).

Hokkei died in 1850 at age 70. He is buried in Ryūhōji temple in Aoyama.

Works

More photos

• illustration

  • illustration

  • illustration

  • illustration

• painting

  • Beauty in a Boat during a Rainstorm

    (full-colour woodblock print)

    1804

  • Kintarō Referees a Match between Rooster and Tengu

  • Head of a Salmon

    1825

  • Autumn Maples at the Takinogawa River

  • Courtesan Riding a Lion

    1830

Personality

Hokkei was an individualistic and versatile artist who made use of a variety of approaches and worked in styles varying from those remiscent of early ukiyo-e artist Hishikawa Moronobu to Western-tinged methods and subjects.