Color woodcut, ink, paper, 22x29 cm, artist's signature
Eisen Tomioka was born in 1864 in Nagano Prefecture under the name Hidetaro. He moved to Tokyo with the intention of becoming a full-time artist. He initially accepted a position as a civilian employee in the Japanese army to support himself. He later gave up this position to study art with Kobayashi Eitaku. He worked as an illustrator and acclaimed kuchi-e artist. During the late Meiji period, publishers of newspapers, magazines and books sold their products with the addition of woodcuts. These prints are called kuchi-e and were created using traditional Japanese woodcut printing techniques. Toward the end of his life, he received a silver award at a joint exhibition of the Japan Art Institute and the Japan Painting Association. In the last years of his life, he focused on painting.
