Torii Kiyonaga

Japan·1752-1815

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. His women are notably tall and full-bodied compared with the slighter figures of Harunobu, set against spacious backgrounds using Western-style perspective, often across large ōban sheets arranged as diptychs or triptychs with rich, varied colour. He also produced detailed, unidealized kabuki actor prints, seen by some as an important step toward Sharaku's style. After Utamaro eclipsed him as the leading bijin-ga artist around 1794, Kiyonaga turned to surimono, book illustration and painting; his last known print dates from 1813. His work is held today in major museum collections worldwide.