Hayakawa Shōzan

Hayakawa Shōzan 早川松山 (1850-1892) [Hayakawa Shōgetsu 早川松月]

BIOGRAPHY

According to Genshoku ukiyo-e daihyakka jiten (1982), vol 2, the artist Hayakawa Shōzan was born in 1850 and died in 1892. His teacher was Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889). The Japanese Wikipedia entry for this artist gives his birth date as August 15, 1850 and his date of death as 1892. It gives his birth name as Hayakawa Tokunosuke 早川徳之助 [早川徳之介], which is seen on a number of prints carrying a signature reading 松月保誠, Shōgetsu Yasusei. Wikipedia relates that when he was a child, he lost his left eye and that he began his woodblock design activities from around 1876 and in 1877, creating prints of the Satsuma Rebellion. Finally, it attributes his death to drowning while being intoxicated.

The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints (p. 457) gives us the following information on the artist Hayakawa Shōzan (1850-1892). Tokyo print designer and book illustrator. Student of Kawanabe Kyōsai. Worked in the manner of his teacher, best remembered for his works depicting the Satsuma Rebellion and meisho views like Famous Views of Yokohama (Yokohama meisho, 1876). Other gagō: Hōsei, Kisei 帰誠, Shōgetsu 松月, Seisai 晴斎 [and while not listed in the Hotei Encyclopedia, Yasusei 保誠].

Waseda University lists the artist under his family name Hayakawa Tokunosuke as being the "editor" of a multi-volume set of e-hon titled Ehon saigo ichidaiki 絵本西郷一代記, a biography of Saigō Takamori, the leader of the Satsuma Rebellion.

Hayakawa Shōzan 早川松山 (1850-1892) is often confused with the artist Kojima Shōgetsu 小島松月 (active 1870–1900). For a fuller discussion about this confusion please go to Kojima Shōgetsu ( (active c. 1870–1904).