Kojima Shōgetsu

Kojima Shōgetsu 小島勝月 (active c. 1870–1904)  

BIOGRAPHY

According to Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints: Reflections of Meiji Culture, Kojima Shōgetsu was born Kojima Katsumi and used the gō (artist name) Tōshū 東洲, which appears on many of his prints. He lived in the Asakusa area of Tokyo and painted genre scenes and sashi-e for several newspapers and magazines including Miyako no hana. He designed kuchi-e, many prints of the Sino-Japanese War and on subjects related to the constitution and industrial exhibitions, as we see in this collection's two prints.1

A Dictionary of Japanese Artists contains the following information:  

Shōgetsu 勝月 (fl. second half 19th c.).  N.: Kojima Katsumi. 小島勝美

Gō: Shōgetsu 勝月, Tōshū 東洲 Biog.: Ukiyo-e printmaker.  His subject matter includes genre scenes and scenes from the 1894-95 war with China.2

Often Confused with the Artist Hayakawa Shōzan (who used the artist name Hayakawa Shōgetsu)

Kojima Shōgetsu 小島勝月, active c. 1870-1900, is often confused with the ukiyo-e artist Hayakawa Shōzan (1850-1892) who used the artist name Hayakawa Shōgetsu 早川松月, among others, and whose career overlapped with Kojima's. While the prints of the two artists are often conflated, we know that their given names are different, Kojima's given name being Katsumi and Hayakawa's given name being Tokunosuke and that their signatures are distinct from each other with a different kanji character being used for "shō," 勝 in Kojima Shōgetsu and 松 in Hayakawa Shōgetsu.