Torii Kiyonaga
Japanese, 1752 - 1815
Woodblock print designer, painter and book illustrator, pupil of Kiyomitsu I. He was the son of the bookseller Shirakoya Ichibei. He grew up in one of Edo’s liveliest areas, with the Ichimuraza and Nakamuraza kabuki theatres close by. Around 1765 he became a student of Kiyomitsu I, and his first work may have been the hosoban (narrow-format; c. 300×140 mm) benizurie (‘pink-printed pictures’; two-colour prints) Nisei Segawa Kikunojo- fun suru Shizuka (‘The actor Segawa Kikunojo- as Shizuka’, 1767; Hirano). However, no further prints by Kiyonaga are known until the hosoban benizurie Nisei Yamashita Kinsaku no Tsukisaya to yonsei Iwai Hanshiro- no Soga no Goro- (‘The actors Yamashita Kinsaku II as Tsukisaya and Iwai Hanshiro- IV as Soga no Goro-’, 1770; Mizoguchi), which marked the beginning of a steady production of yakushae (‘pictures of actors’) in the Torii school style.
Katsukawa Shunsho- (see Katsukawa, (1)) and Ippitsusai buncho- introduced yakusha nigaoe (‘pictures of likenesses of actors’) in 1765, and by c. 1770 all actor prints were nigaoe, except those of the Torii school. The bulk of the 100 yakushae of Kiyonaga’s early period are hosoban (c. 300×140 mm) benizurie in the traditional Torii style. It is only between 1776 and 1780 that Shunsho-’s influence can be seen in his work. Kiyonaga gradually abandoned yakushae and began to design bijinga (‘pictures of beautiful women’). He produced few single-sheet prints, preferring chu-ban (middle format; 260×190 mm) and koban (small format; half aiban or chu-ban size) soroimono (print series), such as the Fu-ryu- Fukagawa hakkei (‘Eight views of fashionable Fukagawa’; koban), Fu-ryu- Edo hakkei (‘Eight views of fashionable Edo’; tanzaku, half o-ban (‘large format’) size), Minami hakkei (‘Eight views of the south’; chu-ban), Fu-ryu- yatsushi Mutamagawa (‘The fashionable abbreviated six Tama rivers’; chu-ban) and Fu-ryu- nana Komachi (‘The fashionable seven Komachi’; chu-ban). Some of these show the influence of Kitao shigemasa and Isoda koryu-sai, while others suggest attempts to distance himself from them. Kiyonaga was also a prolific illustrator of kibyo-shi (‘yellow covers’; comic novels). His first work in the genre was Fu-ryu- mono wa zuke (1775), and his kibyo-shi illustrations reached their peak in 1780. Of the 70 kibyo-shi published that year, one-third were illustrated by Kiyonaga.
Frank descriptions of the daily lives of the Edo populace are prominent in the works of Kiyonaga’s middle years, as in Hakone shichito- meisho (‘The seven famous springs of Hakone’; chu-ban). In the sharebon (‘witty book’; comic novel) Kyo-kun iki hongi (1784), Kiyonaga was listed among the master illustrators of the period. He continued to use the chu-ban format in his woodblock prints, while at the same time experimenting with o-ban (380×250 mm) prints, possibly to distance himself from the artists of the Katsukawa school, who favoured the hosoban format. A representative work of this period is To-sei yu-ri bijin awase (‘Beauties of the licensed districts compared’; 1782–4), which depicts courtesans from Edo’s pleasure quarters of Shinagawa and Fukagawa. Kiyonaga popularized the use of o-ban diptychs and triptychs, as in Fu-zoku Azuma no nishiki (‘Brocade of customs and manners of the East’; o-ban, c. 1784) and in possibly his best work, Minami ju-niko- (‘Twelve seasons of the south’; o-ban, c. 1784). His first triptych is Shijo-gawara no yu-suzumi no tei (‘Enjoying the evening cool at Shijo-gawara’; c. 1784). In theatre illustration he improved on Kiyomitsu I’s benizurie degatarizu (‘pictures of theatrical chanters and musicians’), with the first full-colour o-ban degatarizu. His illustrated books from the period include Ehon monomi ga oku (‘The hill of sightseeing’; 1785) and Saishoku mitsu no asa (‘Three mornings of colour’; 1787). In 1785 Kiyomitsu I died and Kiyonaga became the fourth-generation head of the Torii school. He continued to produce bijinga until 1788, when his production in the genre suddenly decreased.
Susumu Matsudaira and Juliann Wolfgram. "Torii." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T085664pg8 (accessed May 8, 2012).
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