context: painting > prints > artists

Hishikawa Moronobu

an early Moronobu erotic book print

I've seen dates from 1618 to 1638 for his birth, 1694 to 1713 for his death. Best bet: 1625-1694.

One might claim that Iwasa Matabei set up much of the visual style that dominated ukiyo-e. There were anonymous print works slightly before Moronobu's in similar style, but it's a rare history of Edo printmaking that doesn't largely start with Moronobu. He'd been both a Kano and a Tosa painter, but from around the start of the 1670s he illustrated over 150 books, shifting the artist's role from a secondary supporting task to the point of the whole thing, and he moved into individual prints too. His cleverest move in ensuring himself a place in history may have been when he became the first print artist to start signing his work. The work pictured (this was before polychrome prints) is part of an erotic series, and an explanation of what makes it erotic would be welcomed.

forwards: masanobu