 Rokkaen Yoshiyuki (六花園芳雪), a student of Ichiôsai Yoshiume (一鶯齋芳梅 1819-1879), worked in Osaka until around 1868, when he relocated to Tokyo (formerly Edo). He designed woodblock prints almost exclusively in the small chûban format (approx. 250 x 180 mm), which was the predominant ukiyo-e print size in Osaka from the late 1840s into the 1870s. His two main themes were fûkeiga (landscapes: 風景画) and yakusha-e (actor prints: 役者絵). Yoshiyuki is perhaps best known for his contributions to the collaborative series Naniwa hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Osaka: 浪花百景) circa 1860, for which he designed 29 landscapes..
One example from the 100 Views series, shown on the left, is titled Kawasaki no watashi tsukimi kei (Moon Viewing at Kawasaki Ferry: 川崎ノ渡シ月見景). Ferry service once connected Kawasaki Village to Bizenjima located on the opposite side of the O River. The island was, in turn, connected to Osaka Castle via the Bizenjima Bridge. The castle complex can be seen in Yoshiyuki's print, along with a pleasure boat transporting passengers who are enjoying a view of a full moon as they wait for seafood to be served. This charming moonlit scene done in the Hiroshige manner captures a lost world. Today, the ferry service is gone and the Kawasaki Bridge carries pedestrian and bicycle trafffic across the water toward Osaka Castle.
Note: Rokkaen Yoshiyuki should not be confused with two earlier artists signing in Osaka with their art names (gô) that were pronounced the same but written differently: Yoshiyuki (芳幸 surname Kô or Takaki 高 act. c. 1822) and Yoshiyuki (由幸 act. c. late 1820s). There was also a contemporary Edo artist named Ichireisai Yoshiyuki (一嶺齋芳雪 act. c. 1850s - 1860s) who was a pupil of the famous Edo master Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
Rokkaen Yoshiyuki's Names
Surname:
Mori (森)
Personal Names (jinmei):
Yonejirō (米次郎)
Hanjirō (半次郎) pupil of Yoshiume (芳梅)
Art Name (geimei):
Yoshiyuki
(芳雪)
Art Pseudonyms (gô):
Nansui (南粹)
Rokkaken (六花軒)
Rokkaen (六花園)
Pupils of Rokkaen Yoshiyuki
So far, no pupils have been identified.
Most of the information presented here has been adapted from John Fiorillo's web page on Rokkaen Yoshiyuki:
https://viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/ukiyoe/yoshiyuki_rokkaen.html.
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