Okuda Eisen (奥田頴川)
Eisen OKUDA (1753 - 1811) was a ceramic artist in the mid and late Edo period. "Eisen" was his go, or the artistic name, and also his family's surname (pronounced "Egawa"). He was commonly known as "Moemon;" his real name was "Yasunori."
As with Ikkan HIKI, his family was probably a descendant of the Ming people who had escaped from Qing invasion. Later, he was adopted into the Okuda family and became the owner of a pawnshop 'Maruya' in Kyoto as the fourth head of the family. The third head of the family was Eisen's uncle.
He was actually more adept at doing cultural activities than business, so he entrusted a job to a chief clerk in spite of taking over the family business, and was busy doing lessons in various personal accomplishments. He was so deeply absorbed in ceramic art, one of his hobbies, that he handed over the family business to his son and retired at the age of 36. Through trial and error in the dark, he finally succeeded in the experiment of manufacturing porcelain that was produced only in Kyushu in Japan at that time. He was generous enough to unveil these techniques to young craftsmen who happened to hear the news and call on him; he contributed to the development of Kyo yaki (Kyoto style ceramic art). These young craftsmen included those who were later to become Mokubei AOKI and Dohachi NINAMI.
He adopted the Chinese-style Etsuke (painting on china), such as 'Sometsuke' (dyed ceramics), 'Akae' (ceramics with red paintings), or 'Kochi' (ware), which were different from existing Kyo yaki style, and then created a great boom.
Eisen was not a professional ceramic artist but an amateur; that was the very reason why he could developed new porcelain as well as adopt the unconventional Etsuke style at that time. He made sufficient contributions not only to Kyo yaki but also to the history of Japanese ceramic art.
After he died, most of his works were dedicated to Kennin-ji Temple, which was an ancestral temple of his family.