Shioya Chōbei (塩屋長兵衛) (publisher ca 1659 – 1850)
Enchō/Shiochō (seal name - 塩長)Fukusōdō (firm name)
Yamamoto Harushige (family name - 山本春樹)
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Biography:
Osaka print publisher (Marks 475). Marks gives two dates for this publisher. One is ca. 1659-1850 and the other is ca. 1793-1839 for ukiyo prints. He explains it this way: "Overlapping dates indicate that a publisher simultaneously operated at more than one location, a few even in other cities.".
Artists published by this house include Ashinuki, Asihiro, Asihisa, Ashisato, Ashiyuki, Ashitomo, Harusada, Hokkei, Hokuchū, Hokushū, Rankōsai, Ryūkōsai, Shōkōsai, Shunchō, Shunko, Shunkyō, Utakuni and Yoshikuni.
[Artists in the Lyon Collection who were published by this house have their names highlighted in bold type.]
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Shioya Chōbei had a virtual monopoly in Osaka on print publishing up to ca. 1816
"Also contributing to the great upwelling of production in 1816 was a mandated change in who had the right to publish single-sheet prints in Osaka. From the early 1790s, essentially with the start of the Osaka single-sheet tradition with Ryūkōsai, the publisher Shioya Chōbei (Shiochō) enjoyed a near monopoly, but thanks to judicial proceedings that produced koban nishiki-e, as did some smaller firms.... Still more small publishers jumped into the market in the 1820s, working alone or in collaboration with larger firms."
Quoted from: Andon 96, 'Koban nishiki-e: Rare small-format colour prints from Osaka' by John Fiorillo and Peter Ujlaki, p. 10.
Later Fiorillo and Ujlaki added in footnote 17: " The roots of the conflict dated back a quarter century when Shioya Chōbei (Shichō) filed and won a legal suit in Osaka in 1793/8 to suppress the publication of 'single-sheet off-prints' (nukezurí) depicting actors. His intent was to severely limit competition with his theatre books (including Ehon niwatazumi 'Picture book, flowing rainwater', by the artist Ryūkōsai Jokei). After a build-up of de facto competition c. 1816, by late 1817 the single-sheet nishiki-e market was officially opened to more Osaka publishers."