The Soul of the Bunsei Era: The Life and Legacy of Keisai Eisen In the vibrant, flickering light of 19th-century Edo, few artists captured the pulse of the "floating world" with as much evocative intensity as Keisai Eisen. Born into the prestigious Ikeda samurai clan as Ikeda Yoshinobu, his early life was a tapestry of privilege and profound hardship. The son of a respected calligrapher, Shigeharu, Eisen was raised in an environment steeped in the delicate arts of poetry and brushwork. However, the untimely loss of his parents thrust him into the life of a rōnin—a wandering samurai. This tra…