[1] "Zeshin Redux", Orientations, Vol. 29, No. 2, Joe Earle, March, 2008, p. 136.

[2] An Exhibition of Prints, Paintings and Lacquer by Shibata Zeshin, 25June-9 July 1976, Milne Henderson (gallery), 1976, unpaginated.

[3] Zeshin: The Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection,  Joe Earle and Sebastian Izzard, San Antonio Museum of Art, 2007, p. 15.

[4] Ibid, p. 14.

Prints in Collection

click on image for details

BIOGRAPHY

And so this Zeshin, master craftsman with eye of genius for little things, was perfection.

Alan Priest, Curator of Far Eastern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Biography compiled primarily  from the following sources: An Exhibition of Prints, Paintings and Lacquer by Shibata Zeshin, 25 June-9 July 1976, Milne Henderson (gallery), 1976; The Art of Shibata Zeshin: The Mr and Mrs James E O'Brien Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Mary Louise O'Brien, Martin Foulds, Howard A Link, Robert G Sawers PublishersZeshin: The Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection,”  Joe Earle and Sebastian Izzard, San Antonio Museum of Art, 2007

Returning to Edo in 1832, he would move into a house in the Asakusa District, where he would remain the rest of his life. Upon returning to Edo he would undertake extensive study of the great lacquer artists which included  seven months of research in Kyoto. In Edo, he would actively court private commissions, the most famous being the 1840 painted votive panel, The Demoness (Kijō-zu), based on the legend of the Ibaraki Demoness, commissioned by the Tokyo Sugar Foundation and dedicated to the Tokyo's Ōji Inari Shrine. In 1934, almost 100 years after its creation, the painting was officially recognized as an Important Art Object by the Japanese government.[5] 

About Lacquered Pieces

Always searching for new lacquer techniques, in the 1830s and 1840s, a time of economic and social crisis, during which the government made various attempts to control spending on luxuries, including limiting the use of gold and silver in lacquer work, Zeshin developed techniques using cheaper materials, although these techniques demanded more time and skill. Among other decorative techniques he developed or perfected were the use of black lacquers with tone-on-tone decoration and lacquers imitating iron or bronze or the fine texture of rosewood.

In 1848, Zeshin married and in 1850 his first child Kametarō III (later named Reisai) was born. In 1854 he suffered the death of both his mother, Masu, and his wife, Suma. He would marry again in 1858 and have a second son Shinjirō, later called Shinsai, and also known as Shibata Shin'ya. His second wife would die in 1863.

In the years before the Meiji reformation Shibata would, while dealing with personal tragedy and natural disasters that negatively affected the lacquer market, continue to study lacquer technique making important innovations in the art. 

While Zeshin, like many other Edoites, initially disapproved of the new government which came to power in 1868, reportedly declining a commission by Emperor Meiji, he accepted an invitation to represent Japan at the 1873 Vienna International Exposition and produced the work Fuji Tagonoura. 

[1] An Exhibition of Prints, Paintings and Lacquer by Shibata Zeshin, 25 June-9 July 1976, Milne Henderson (gallery), 1976, unpaginated.

[2] Zeshin: The Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection, Joe Earle and Sebastian Izzard, San Antonio Museum of Art, 2007, p. 18.

[3] Zeshin’s Shijo Surimono and His Later Shikishiban Prints," by Robert Schaap, appearing in Andon 102, Journal of the Society for Japanese Arts, autumn 2016, p. 56

[4] The Art of Shibata Zeshin: The Mr and Mrs James E O'Brien Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Mary Louise O'Brien, Martin Foulds, Howard A Link, Robert G Sawers Publishers, p. 21.

[5] Ibid.

[6} Ibid, p. 23

[7] Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibata_Zeshin

[8] As to the students Koami-ise, Inomote Chikugo, Nara Tosa and Matsuno Oshiu, listed in the article "The Life of Shibata Zeshin" appearing in The Far East Vol. II., No. 1, January 20, 1897,  p. 348, this article is the only mention of them I have come across.

[9] The Art of Shibata Zeshin, p. 25.

[10] Zeshin: The Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection, p. 14.

Woodblock Prints

While taking a back seat to Shibata's lacquer work and painting, woodblock prints played an important role in his oeuvre being described as "a bridge between the landscape paintings and the simpler subject matter treated in the lacquer decoration."[1] Commenting in The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Prints, John Fiorillo states "Print designs made after his drawings often employed lacquering and other de-luxe printing techniques, with painterly brushwork vividly translated  into the medium of the woodblock." He goes on to describe Zeshin's prints as as "Characterized by attention to expressive detail, fondness for everyday things and sympathetic humor."[2] 

His friendship with Utagawa Kuniyoshi, the famous ukiyo-e artist, "brought him into contact with the huge Edo publishing industry that supported printmakers of the Ukiyo-e school"[3] and over his lifetime he created hundreds, if not thousands, of designs, specializing in privately commissioned surimono, the designs for which often found re-use by publisher's as square-format shikishiban, as shown below.

Hana kurabe (Comparison of flowers) 

Among Zeshin's better known print designs is a series titled Hana kurabe (Comparison of flowers) published by Shūgyokudo between c. 1875-1890 consisting of 120 chūban size prints, some with gold, silver and mica highlights.  It has been noted that "Zeshin used the physical perimeter of the prints as a given arbitrary frame so that he could truncate his objects at will.,” as can be seen in the print Pilgrim monks, below on the left and in this collection's print Three Crows Flying at Sunset, shown above.[4]

Prints designed by Zeshin with calligraphy by high-ranking Meiji Diet members

A series of six prints, three of which are shown below, designed "by Zeshin with calligraphy by ministers who held high posts in the Meiji Diet, after having opposed the previous Bakufu government."[5]

Other Prints 

[1]  An Exhibition of Prints, Paintings and Lacquer by Shibata Zeshin, 25June-9 July 1976, Milne Henderson (gallery), 1976, unpaginated.

[2] The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing Company, 2005, p. 486.

[3] The Art of Shibata Zeshin: The Mr and Mrs James E O'Brien Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Mary Louise O'Brien, Martin Foulds, Howard A Link, Robert G Sawers Publishers, p. 21.

[4] An Exhibition of Prints, Paintings and Lacquer by Shibata Zeshin, unpaginated

[5] Ibid.

Artist Names (gō), Signatures and Seals of the Artist

Artist Names: Shibata Junzō 柴田順蔵, Shibata Kametarō 柴田亀太郎, Tanzen (Senzen) 儃然, Chinryūtei 沈柳亭, Koma 古満, Reiya (Reisai) 令哉, Tairyūkyo 対柳居

Signatures of the Artist (a sampling)

Most signature on Zeshin's woodblock prints use the two characters 是真, a signature he frequently used between about 1832 and 1873, after which he grew into the habit of adding either his age or the year of his work.