Torii Kiyohiro

Scuba divers catching mussels

Torii Kiyohiro ( Japanese 鳥 居 清 広 , nickname Shichinosuke ( 七 之 助 ); exact dates of life unknown) was a Japanese painter in the ukiyoe style, active between around 1737 and 1776.

life and work

Almost nothing is known about Kiyohiro's life, except that he may have died of smallpox in 1776. Kiyonobu II., Kiyomasu II. And Kiyomitsu are variously named as his teachers. But even these artists are only poorly recorded in biographical terms.

Kiyohiro's earliest known work is an illustration for a theater-related booklet from 1737, but most of his work was published between the 1750s and 1760s. You make full use of the two-color printing ( 紅 摺 絵 , Benizuri-e ) that has just been introduced : green can now be added to red. A few of his prints are large in format, but most are made as narrow hosobans ( 細 版 ; about 32 × 15 cm), often as three-leaf combinations.

Kiyohiro's designs for prints of kabuki actors, genre scenes, and young girls (often half-naked) are characterized by cheerfulness and freshness, with the background often being imaginative.

photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Remarks

1. ↑ The women who dive for clams are called ama ( 海 女 ) in Japan .

literature

• Inagaki, Shin'ichi: Torii Kiyohiro. In: Ukiyoe Nyūmon. Kawade, 1990. ISBN 4-309-72476-0 .
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Torii Kiyohiro . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: Torii Kiyohiro . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

Web links

Commons : Torii Kiyohiro  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Torii is the family name, Kiyohiro the first name.