Torii Kiyonobu II

Mitate no Soga: Jūrō, Gorō, Yoshihide (approx. 1744–1751)

Torii Kiyonobu II. ( Japanese 鳥 居 清 信 ; * approx. Beginning of the 18th century ; † second third of the 18th century) was a Japanese woodcut artist and painter in the ukiyo-e style . He belonged to the second generation of the Torii school .

The identity of Kiyonobu II is not clear. It is not known whether he was a son or an adopted son of Kiyonobu I , nor can it be said with what name he signed before he succeeded him. The research names all prints signed with Kiyonobu, which were created and can be dated after Kiyonobu I's withdrawal from artistic life in 1725, with the name Kiyonobu II. Since the generation change from the first to the second Kiyonobu is not indicated on any known print and If there is no other evidence of any stylistic differences in the signatures or seals used, the prints, which can be dated to the 1720s, can come from both Kiyonobu I and II. In addition, the reconstruction of the members of the Torii school, which was not carried out until the end of the 19th century, which is essentially based on a few ambiguous grave inscriptions, allows several artists to have signed under the name Kiyonobu (II.) By 1760 .

As a result of the aforementioned convention, Kiyonobu II was active in the years 1726–1760. He drew the drafts for around 300 actor portraits and Kabuki scenes in the narrow Hosoban format and around a dozen in other formats for around 20 publishers . There are also a few sheets with beautiful women ( bijin-ga ), some shunga prints, at least one preserved depiction of animals ( kacho-e ), one preserved perspective print ( uki-e ) depicting a Korean delegation and three, each eight series of prints with views of the city of Edo, which are executed as “sewing box print” ( haribako-e ). The illustrations for eleven books are also known, including one with Kiyomitsu I , the head of the Torii school in the third generation. Also preserved is a head-high votive tablet for the Saidai Temple in the province of Nara , which depicts the actor Ichikawa Ebizō II in a Kabuki role.

Until the early 1740s, the prints were hand-colored black and white prints, after which Benizuri-e , two-color prints with color plates in pink and green were created. Together with Kiyomasu II, Kiyonobu II is considered to be the leading artist of the second Torii generation, even if his prints do not have the same charisma as those of his predecessor, Kiyonobu I. The less powerfully executed designs for the two-color Prints could be an indication that several artists have operated under the name Kiyonobu II. However, they could also be an indication that the woodcut draughtsmen of the time still had to familiarize themselves with the technical and artistic possibilities of the new multi-color printing.

literature

• Gabriele Fahr-Becker (Ed.): Japanese color woodcuts , Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-8228-3473-2 (German)
• Thimothy Clark, Anne Nishimura Morse et al. a .: The Dawn of the Floating World 1650-1765. Early Ukiyo-e Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston , Royal Academy Books, London 2002, ISBN 0-8109-6644-1 (English)
• Andreas Marks: Japanese Woodblock Prints. Artists, Publishers and Masterworks 1680–1900 , Tuttle Publishing, North-Clarendon 2010, ISBN 978-4-8053-1055-7 (English)
• Amy Reigle Newland (Ed.): The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints . 2 volumes, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam 2005, ISBN 90-74822-65-7 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thimothy Clark, Anne Nishimura Morse et al. a .: The Dawn of the Floating World 1650-1765. Early Ukiyo-e Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston , Royal Academy Books, London 2002, p. 51 and p. 55
2. ↑ Thimothy Clark, Anne Nishimura Morse et al. a .: The Dawn of the Floating World 1650-1765. Early Ukiyo-e Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston , Royal Academy Books, London 2002, p. 55, reference to Howard Link: The Theatrical Prints of the Torii Masters , Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu 1977. And: Im Koga bikō ( 古画 備考 ), German remarks on old painting , edition from 1850, five other bearers with the name Kiyonobu are listed following Kiyonobu I. ( online view ; PDF; 10 kB)
3. ↑ National Institute of Japanese Literature : Union Catalog of Early Japanese Books ( Memento of the original of February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Japanese), accessed August 24, 2011 
4. ↑ Thimothy Clark, Anne Nishimura Morse et al. a .: The Dawn of the Floating World 1650-1765. Early Ukiyo-e Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston , Royal Academy Books, London 2002, p. 24

Web links

Commons : Torii Kiyonobu II.  - Collection of images

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