(b Edo [now Tokyo], 1665; d Edo, 1737). Japanese seal-carver and calligrapher. The Ikenaga were a powerful provincial family in Odawara, Sagami Province (now Kanagawa Prefect.). In 1593 they moved to Edo, where they ran a pharmacy as well as being the head family of their residential district. Doun was adopted into the Ikenaga family and became its fifth-generation head. He enjoyed learning from an early age and studied with Sakakibara Koshu (1655–1706); his close friends included such seal-carvers as HOSOI KOTAKU (also a distinguished calligrapher) and Imai Junsai (1658–1718). His seal album Itto bansho (‘One blade, a myriad images’; 1713; Japan, N. Mizuta priv. col.; see JAPAN, §XVI, 20 and fig. 246) was the forerunner of artistic seal albums in Japan. It is in four volumes, the first two showing 328 seals carved in different styles, based on the Senjimon (the ‘Thousand-character’ Chinese classic); the third is a collection of the impressions of 170 private seals in Doun’s own collection. Prefaces from major scholars and Koreans and Chinese resident in Japan, as well as Doun’s own prefatory remarks, are bound together in another volume. Only 100 copies of the Itto bansho were printed, to be distributed exclusively among Doun’s friends or offered to Shinto shrines. He also presented a specially prepared edition, with specially impressed seals, to retired Emperor Reigen (reg 1663–87) and another to Hosshin, abbot of the temple Myohoin. The work is evidence that the practice of seal carving as an art form and the publication of seal albums for aesthetic appreciation began with Doun. His school became known as the Early Edo school (Shoki Edo ha; see also JAPAN, §XVI, 19).

• Ikenaga Doun
  • Japan, §XVI, 20(ii)(a): Kondai seals: c 1600–c 1780
  • Japan, §XVI, 20(iii): Seals: Connoisseurship and collecting