Kinzō, a painter of Tosa, worked on many paintings such as folding screens of Kabuki play, Ema lanterns, May festival banners, etc., from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji era. He has been familiar with his hometown of Kōchi for many years under the nickname “Ekin-san.” The custom of displaying folding screens of Ekin for several days during the summer festival has not changed. Scenes from frightening Kabuki stories are lit up by lanterns and candles in the precincts of shrines and under the eaves of shopping streets in various places in Kōchi. They leave a vivid impression on those who see them in the darkness of a midsummer night.

Ekin’s folding screens were such a part of everyday life that there was an old saying, “When a rain shower came at a summer festival, I put away the paper lanterns before the folding screens.” Ekingura was opened in Akaoka-chō, Kōnan City, Kōchi Prefecture in 2005. Also, the Ekin School Art Gallery was established at Creative Park ACTLAND (currently ACT Museum), which opened in Noichi-chō, Kōnan City in 2015. As a result, Ekin’s achievements have been reevaluated, and the environment for preserving, researching and exhibiting his works has improved in recent years. The Museum of Art, Kōchi held large-scale exhibitions of Ekin in 1996 and 2012, but most of the approximately 200 existing folding screens are owned by shrines, residents’ associations, neighborhood associations, community centers, etc. For that reason, it is a rare opportunity to see Ekin’s work in one place.

Ekin was featured in the magazine Taiyō in 1966, and Ekin became a temporary boom, including novels, stage performances and movies. Exhibitions of Ekin were held at department stores in Tokyo and Osaka around 1970. This large-scale exhibition of Ekin’s masterpieces is the first in Tokyo in half a century and the first such undertaking at any art museum.