Isoda Koryūsai

1735-1790

Isoda Koryūsai worked in Edo as a printmaker and painter from about 1769 until his death in 1790, after an earlier career as a samurai in service to the Tsuchiya clan; he took up print design under the name Haruhiro once he became a masterless rōnin. Following the death of Suzuki Harunobu in 1770, Koryūsai began producing images of courtesans and beauties in a related idiom, and went on to become one of the most prolific designers of the period, with roughly 2,500 known designs and about ninety surviving paintings. He excelled in the tall, narrow hashira-e pillar-print format, shaping robes and sleeves into flowing diagonal patterns that suited the awkward proportions, and his long series Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh Young Leaves remains the most extensive ukiyo-e series of beauties ever published. In 1782 he received the Buddhist title hokkyō from the imperial court, unusual recognition for an ukiyo-e artist, though his output slowed afterward. His prints and paintings are now held in museum collections across the world.