Kojima Seisai 小島成齋 (1796-1862) is referred to as one of the four great calligraphers of the
bakumatsu 幕末 period, but there is much about his calligraphy and achievements that remains unclear. I have been conducting research on his works of calligraphy and his views on calligraphy, and in this article I focus on his signatures and seals added to completed works and the manner in which they were applied as part of an investigation into his calligraphic works.
First, I take up thirty-seven dated calligraphic specimens among publications and inscriptions and forty-two dated works bearing seals, and I carefully investigate the seal impressions of thirty-one seals used by Seisai, their wording and measurements, and the frequency with which they were used. I further undertook examinations of seals that were used especially frequently, and I determined that seals bearing his surname, his given name Chikanaga 親長, and his literary name Shisho 子祥 (島, 親長, 島親長, 子祥氏) may be considered to have been used from the age of seventeen to his early twenties when he was studying under Ichikawa Beian 市河米庵 (1779-1858); the seal 庫司馬印 is a seal carved in imitation of the
Qianziwen 千字文 in cursive script by Huaisu 懷素 and may be supposed to have been used during his fifties; and the seals 源氏子節 and 源知足章 may be regarded as representative seals of his later years in view of the fact that both of these seals have been affixed to works mounted on hanging scrolls dating from when he was sixty-seven. Since there also exist forgeries of these last two seals, I point out that works attributed to Seisai may include forgeries, but the elucidation of further details will be a task for the future.
Next, I examined a distinctive method of affixing seals used by Seisai, namely, that of first writing his name or literary name and then affixing his seal on top of it. In view of the fact that similar examples can be found in the works of the Song-period Ouyang Xiu 歐陽脩, Su Dongpo 蘇東坡, Huang Tingjian 黄庭堅, and Mi Fu 米〓 and in Japanese works of calligraphy, I infer that Seisai followed this method because he regarded it as a traditional style of affixing seals. This can be understood as an example of his basing himself on revivalist thought and taking the Chinese classics as his norm in seals and methods of affixing seals too, just as he did in works of calligraphy in which he followed classical works. I believe that this examination of Seisai's use of seals will be useful for inferring the dates of his undated works too.
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