Katsukawa Shunshō and Torii Kiyonaga — The Two Great Painters of the Nishiki-e Expansion Era

After Harunobu’s Death, How Did the Nishiki-e Develop?

In 1770, the father of the nishiki-e, Suzuki Harunobu, died suddenly. In only 5 years of activity, Harunobu had left the framework of the nishiki-e — technique, medium-format standard, lyrical bijin-ga, mitate-e.

In the following 1770s-1780s, the nishiki-e develops in two directions:

1. Nishiki-e-ization of the actor print — Katsukawa Shunshō. Against the stylized actor prints of the Torii school, the “similitude actor print” that captured individual facial features
2. A new mode of bijin-ga — Torii Kiyonaga. Turning away from Harunobu’s girlish lines to the new ideal image of the eight-headed tall beauty

These two build the bridge to the age of Utamaro and Sharaku in the 1790s.

Katsukawa Shunshō (1726-1793)

Life

• Born in 1726, in Edo (theories vary)
• In his youth, studied hand-painted bijin-ga under Miyagawa Chōshun
• Later independent from the Katsu-Miyagawa school; took the surname Katsukawa
• Mid-1760s, in response to the appearance of the nishiki-e, moved fully into prints
• Died in 1793, at 68

Shunshō’s Innovation — “Similitude Actor Print (Nigao Yakusha-e)”

Until then, actor prints had been a Torii school monopoly. The actor prints of the Torii school depicted stylized aragoto figures with the “gourd-legs, earthworm-drawing.” Rather than the individual features of the face, the stylized pose of the play was prioritized.

Shunshō brought here the notion of “nigao” — that is, the real facial features of an actual actor.

• Carefully drew the individual differences of brows, eyes, nose, and mouth
• Not only kumadori (kabuki makeup) or a fixed pose, but a face by which the actor himself could be recognized
• For fans of the actor, a portrait recognizable as “just like the actor I love”

This is the direct forerunner of Tōshūsai Sharaku’s actor ōkubi-e 20 years later. Without Shunshō, the shock of Sharaku’s 1794 would not have been possible.

Representative Series

Azuma Ōgi Series (1770s)

A series with an actor’s likeness arranged on a fan-shaped surface. An ambitious work in the fan-form rather than the medium format. Representative of Shunshō’s similitude actor prints.

Ehon Butai Ōgi (1770, collaboration with Shunshō and Bunchō)

An illustrated book (ehon) of actor prints. A collaboration with Ichiyanagisai Bunchō that compiles the likenesses of actors of the Three Edo Theaters. With this, Shunshō forced his way into the actor-print market of Edo.

Sumō-e (1780s)

Together with kabuki actor prints, Shunshō also moved into sumo wrestler prints. He drew the face and physique of individual wrestlers in nigao. Another expansion of the “nigao genre.”

Shunshō’s Workshop and Katsushika Hokusai

Many disciples were raised in Shunshō’s workshop:

• Katsukawa Shunrō — the later Katsushika Hokusai. In his young days, Hokusai painted actor prints as “Katsukawa Shunrō” under Shunshō’s tutelage
• Katsukawa Shun’ei, Shunkō — direct disciples of Shunshō, who inherited the actor prints

The fact that Hokusai was under Shunshō’s tutelage is important for understanding the sense of form in the later Fugaku Sanjūrokkei. Hokusai received the training of “drawing individual faces” from actor prints under Shunshō.

Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815)

Position as the Fourth-Generation Head of the Torii School

Torii Kiyonaga is the fourth-generation head of the Torii school. As treated in the previous article, the Torii school was a school specializing in actor prints. But Kiyonaga was the rare head who also entered the field of bijin-ga, becoming the painter representative of 1780s nishiki-e bijin-ga.

• Born in 1752, in Edo
• Around 1780, succeeded the third generation Kiyomasu as head of the Torii school
• 1780s-1790s, the peak years of his bijin-ga
• Died in 1815, at 63

“Eight-Headed Tall Beauty” — A New Ideal Image

Kiyonaga’s bijin-ga turned away from the girlish body of Harunobu:

• Tall — proportion close to eight heads
• Small oval, well-formed face
• Long limbs
• Composed as groups (multiple women)

This bodily expression is close to the modern model physique. The girls in Harunobu’s pictures are girls’-manga-like, but Kiyonaga’s women are an ideal image of adult women. This reflects the maturation of the aesthetic of Edo in the 1780s.

Adoption of the Ōban and Ōban-yoko-ōban Formats

Kiyonaga actively used the ōban (about 39 cm tall) and the ōban-yoko-ōban (about 39 × 55 cm). He brought the impact of a large surface into nishiki-e, which had centered on the medium format.

Being large:

• Enables group depictions (arranging 5-6 women)
• Enables large depiction of background landscapes (gardens, rivers, bathhouses)
• Expresses even the details of luxurious kimono patterns

This raised Kiyonaga’s bijin-ga to the level of decorative paintings for hanging, appealing to the upper townspeople and samurai.

Representative Works

Minami Jūni Kō Series (1784)

A large-format series depicting the 12 months of Edo’s okabasho (private pleasure quarters). A representative work of Kiyonaga’s group bijin-ga. Draws in detail the scenery of the four seasons and the relationship of courtesans, clients, and maids.

Tōsei Yūri Bijin Awase (1783)

A large-format series that gathered the beauties of the modern (=then-current) pleasure quarters. A complete form of the Kiyonaga style.

Shatō no Miai (c. 1785)

A scene of a “matchmaking” between a young man and woman in the precincts of a shrine. Turns the love and social gathering of Edo into a subject.

Fūzoku Azuma no Nishiki (1783-84)

A grand series depicting the four-seasons manners of Edo in the ōban-yoko-ōban format. A representative work of Kiyonaga’s peak.

Kiyonaga’s Limits and Successors

Kiyonaga’s eight-headed beauties dominated the 1780s, but around 1790 they gave the lead role to Utamaro’s ōkubi-e. Utamaro focused not on Kiyonaga’s ideal beauty of the full figure, but on the psychology of face and upper body. With this, the mainstream of bijin-ga returned to medium-format ōkubi-e.

Kiyonaga himself returned to work as an actor-print painter under the Torii school head system, but his peak as a bijin-ga painter was the 10 years of the 1780s.

Shunshō vs. Kiyonaga — Contrasting Roles

A comparison of the two painters active in the same period:

Element	Katsukawa Shunshō	Torii Kiyonaga
Life	1726-1793	1752-1815
Main genre	Actor prints	Bijin-ga
School	Katsukawa school (newly founded)	Torii school (4th generation)
Format	Medium, fan-shape	Ōban, yoko-ōban
Innovation	Similitude actor print	Eight-headed beauty
Successor	Hokusai (in his youth)	Utamaro (next generation)

Shunshō began drawing individual faces, and Kiyonaga drew the ideal body. These two are unified in the large-headed bijin-ga of Utamaro and the actor ōkubi-e of Sharaku in the 1790s.

1770s-1780s — The Maturation of the Nishiki-e

Twenty-five years from Harunobu’s birth of the nishiki-e (1765), the nishiki-e had:

• Technique — the multicolor technique completed by Harunobu settled in
• Format — expanded from medium (Harunobu) → ōban (Kiyonaga)
• Subject — the three great genres of bijin-ga (Harunobu, Kiyonaga), actor prints (Shunshō), and mitate-e were established
• Market — the picture-book shops of Edo increased across the whole city; publishers competed
• Audience — not only townspeople but samurai, monks, and wealthy people of the provinces

The “golden age of the nishiki-e” is often said to be the age of Utamaro, Sharaku, and Hokusai in the 1790s, but its base was built in the 20 years of Shunshō and Kiyonaga in the 1770s-1780s.

From This Article to the Next

In the 1790s, the nishiki-e reaches the technical peak of figure painting. Kitagawa Utamaro shifts from Kiyonaga’s full-figure bijin-ga to the close-up of face and upper body (ōkubi-e), completing a new expression that draws women’s inner lives. In combination with the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō, Edo bijin-ga arrives at a level rare even in the history of world painting. The next article traces Utamaro’s life and the peak of bijin-ga.