The Kaishin Inpu Belonging to the Shinoda Family and Related Materials

Liu Xie, Zhang Huaiguan, and Zhang Yanyuan

Abstract

Shinoda Kaishin 篠田芥津 (1827–1902) is known as a pioneering adopter of the seal-engraving style of the Chinese Zhe 浙 school in the Edo-Meiji period and also as the teacher of Kawai Senro 河井荃廬. A collection of impressions of seals engraved by Shinoda is the Shinoda Kaishin sensei inpu 篠田芥津先生印譜 (1901), but until now little attention has been paid to the seal impressions it contains or to related works. It is also a fact that there are contradictions and inconsistencies in existing materials regarding Kaishin's career.
  I was recently provided with unpublished materials, including seal impressions, by Shinoda Katsuharu 篠田捷治, one of Kaishin's descendants (a great-grandson of Kaishin's younger brother Hikobee 彦兵衛), and was apprised of the existence of a private edition of collected seal impressions in four albums titled Kaishin inpu 芥津印譜. This brings together in four albums seals engraved by Kaishin when he was residing in Edo and Gifu, and it was kept by the Shinoda family without being published. These seal impressions provide important material for learning about his engraving style and acquaintances at the time. In addition to the Kaishin inpu, there are also more than two hundred duplicates of seal impressions accompanied by notes in Kaishin's own hand. These are valuable materials that inform us of the dates when these seals were produced and of the extent of his circle of acquaintances.
  In this article, I organize these materials, identify Kaishin's clients on the basis of the dates and texts of the seals, and determine when he was living in Edo, Gifu, and Kyoto, and by this means I clarify details of his middle years, about which there has been some confusion. This is the main point of this article. Further, in view of the fact that he also carved seals for many men of culture and prominent figures, I was able to confirm the assessment and personality of Kaishin as a seal engraver who was no mere career seal carver.