Japanese Colour-Prints and Their Designers

FURUYAMA MOROMASA

Pupil, and perhaps the son, of Moronobu. He devoted himself chiefly to painting, but designed a few prints, most of which are ukiyé, or perspective pictures, in the style of Okumura Masanobu.

OKUMURA MASANOBU

One of the most eminent of the Ukiyoé artists. His drawings were greatly admired for their rare combination of force and refinement, and he exercised wide influence over his contemporaries and successors to the end of the eighteenth century. He was the first artist to use blocks from which prints were coloured in flat tints. These were printed in the red known as beni, green, and black, and were known as beni-yé. He was also the first artist to make the tall, narrow pillar prints (ha-shira-yé), and was the inventor of the perspective prints which he called ukiyé. His true name was Okumura Genpachi, and he was commonly known as honya (bookseller) Genpachi, from the fact that he was the proprietor of a wholesale and retail book and print shop at the sign of the “red gourd” in Tori-shio cho̅, Yedo.

OKUMURA TOSHINOBU

Toshinobu, the son of Masanobu, was an artist of decided talent who died young. His known works, which resemble those of his father, are all urushi-yé, and were designed about 1730-1736.

TSUNEKAWA SHIGENOBU

An early Ukiyoé artist of whom little is known. His prints are extremely rare.

NISHIMURA SHIGENAGA

Son of Shigenobu. Born in 1697 and died in 1756. An artist of ability who exercised marked influence upon the development of the school. His prints are very uneven in quality.

ISHIKAWA TOYONOBU

One of the most important of the Ukiyoé masters. Born in 1711, died in 1785. Pupil of Shigenaga, and probably of Masanobu whose style he closely assimilated.

TORII SHIRO

Known as Kiyonobu the second, all of his prints being signed Torii Kiyonobu. He was the eldest son of Kiyomasu. Worked from about 1740 to about 1755, when it is probable that his death occurred. Some of the most charming of the beni-yé prints are from his hand.

TORII KIYOMITSU

Second son of Kiyomasu, whom he succeeded as the head of the Torii line. An artist of distinction. Was the first to add a third colour-block to the original two. He was born in 1735 and died in 1785. After 1765 he designed only a few prints, and appears to have designed none later than about 1768.

SUZUKI HARUNOBU

The central figure in Ukiyoé and the eminent master under whose hand the art of colour-printing was brought to perfection in the sixties of the eighteenth century. He was a draughtsman of extreme elegance and power, and his works have a charm that is peculiarly their own. He died on July 7, 1770, when, says Shiba Kokan in his book “Kokan Kokai-ki,” he “had hardly passed his fortieth year.”

SHIBA KOKAN

An artist who is best known as a clever imitator of his master, Harunobu, whose signature he forged upon a number of prints. He also used the “go̅,” or studio name, Harushige in signing prints in the Harunobu manner. In later years he painted pictures in semi-European style, and made copper-plate engravings which were coloured by hand. He was born in 1747 and died in 1818.

SHOSHOKEN

This is the pseudonym of an artist of distinction whose identity has not been determined. His known works are calendar prints for 1765.

KITAO SHIGEMASA

One of the noted artists of the school. Was famous for his skill as a calligrapher, being reputed to have no superior in his day in either of the “three capitals,” Yedo, Kyoto, or Osaka. His prints, which are rare, are generally of much distinction. He was born in 1740, and died in the second month of Bunsei 3 (February or March, 1820).

ISODA KORYUSAI

The most important pupil of Harunobu, whose style he followed closely in his early works. Later he developed a manner of his own. As a designer of pillar prints and of prints of birds, he was especially successful. He was a samurai and associated with samurai of the superior class. The director of the mint was one of his most intimate friends and patrons. About 1781 he gave up print-designing, devoted himself to painting, and was given the honorary title of Hokyo. The dates of his birth and death are not known.

KATSUKAWA SHUNSHO

A contemporary of Harunobu and one of the greatest of the Ukiyoé artists. He was highly renowned in his day and had many pupils who became famous. Most of his prints were portraits of actors in character. He was born in 1726 and died on January 22, 1793.

KATSUKAWA SHUNKO̅

Pupil of Shunsho and generally regarded as his most talented follower. His career as a print-designer was cut short by a stroke of paralysis when he was in his forty-fifth or forty-sixth year, but he lived for about [pg 43] forty years thereafter as a recluse at Zenfukuji temple, Azabu, Yedo, where he died in 1827.

KATSUKAWA SHUNYEI

Pupil of Shunsho̅ and an artist of ability. At first, for a short time, he called himself Shunjo̅. He was born in 1767, and died on December 13, 1819.

UTAGAWA TOYOHARU

Pupil of Toyonobu. As a painter his reputation is justly high. He did not design many prints. He was born in 1735 and died on March 3, 1814.

TORII KIYONAGA

Everything considered, the greatest artist of the Ukiyoé school and the culminating figure in its forward movement. He was born in 1742 and died in 1815. His finest prints were designed between 1780 and 1790.

YEISHOSAI CHOKI

An artist of ability, though not quite of the first rank. His prints are rare. He worked at first in the style of Kiyonaga. Later he imitated Utamaro, and changed his “go̅,” or studio name, to Momokawa Shiko.

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI

A master of extraordinary versatility and power. Perhaps the most widely known of all the Japanese artists. He was born in 1760 and died in the spring of 1849.

LENT BY HAMILTON EASTER FIELD.

LENT BY A COLLECTOR