Torii Kiyonaga

Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815) was an Edo-born printmaker who rose from an unlikely background — his father kept tenements near a fish market — to lead the Torii school of ukiyo-e. Trained from age fourteen under Torii Kiyomitsu, he absorbed influences from Harunobu, Koryūsai and Shigemasa, and took over the school's kabuki-related work after Kiyomitsu's death, formally assuming leadership in 1787 and later training his successor, Kiyomine. Kiyonaga is best remembered for bijin-ga, prints of courtesans and beautiful women, produced at their height through the 1780s.