Suzuki Harunobu
Tradition generally credits Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-1770) with the technical invention of "nishiki-e" (brocade print) in the calendar year 1765, but this needs to be qualified with the suggestion that he was the first successful artist to wed this technical accomplishment with a design approach that well-suited the medium. The Michener Collection includes, for example, the book "Wakana-shü" by the artist Ryüsai, which features illustrations made from eight blocks with additional colors achieved by overprinting. The work, moreover, is dated 1756, some eight years before Harunobu’s experiments. But unlike Ryüsai’s rather crudely conceived illustrations, Harunobu’s art was highly sophisticated and had an intellectually refined style. Indeed, Harunobu is generally considered one of the two or three most important artists in all of "ukiyo-e."
Early records state that this influential master was a student of Nishimura Shigenaga, but at best the evidence is meager. Recent studies suggest that he may have been a student of Nishikawa Sukenobu, and this is supported by a strong Sukenobu influence in his art after 1762. It was not until late 1764, when Harunobu was commissioned to execute a number of designs for calendar prints for the coming year, that his full achievement as an artist was evident. In that year noted literati contributed designs and ideas for calendar prints, and the publishers outdid themselves to produce the finest full-color work possible, using an especially fine absorbent paper and pigments of the most sensitive and evanescent color. Since the art was designed for a limited, intellectual audience, the subjects were highly refined, emphasizing parody and lyricism. The results have never been surpassed. The Michener Collection is especially rich in Harunobu’s masterful works, containing over one hundred examples of his art.
- - - - - - -
SUMMARY: Tradition generally credits Harunobu for the technical invention of full-color printing, but this needs to be qualified with the suggestion that he was the first successful artist to wed this technical accomplishment with a form of art that well suited the medium. His was a highly sophisticated and intellectually refined style of "ukiyo-e." For this reason he is generally considered one of the two or three most important artists in all of "ukiyo-e." Tradition (the Ukiyo-e Ruiko) states that he was a student of Shigenaga, but the art evidence is thin at best, resting on a picture book patterned after that artist in style.
Recent research now suggests that he was a student of Nishikawa Sukenobu, the Kyoto book illustrator whose work Harunobu often plagiarized. Although we have no means at present for checking the accuracy of the Japanese burial record that supports this opinion, we must note that his earliest work is not done in the style of Sukenobu, but rather that of Torii Kiyomitsu and occasionally Okumura Masanobu. If Harunobu was a member of the Nishikawa school, he apparently joined that school after experimentation with other styles.
The earliest work exhibiting Sukenobu influence is dated 1762. It wasn't until late-1764 when Harunobu was commissioned to execute a number of designs for calendar prints for the coming year that his full achievement as an artist had fruition. In that year noted literati contributed designs and ideas for calendar prints and the publishers outdid themselves to produce the finest full-color work possible using an especially fine, soft absorbent paper, and printing with the most sensitive and evanescent colors ever devised anywhere. Harunobu's initial work, designed for a limited intellectual audience, was a highly refined sophisticated experience, emphasizing parody, lyricism, and that never-never land quality where only youth and beauty live on forever. The result is what we call Harunobu's brocade print. In his mature years of 1768, we find an even more supple blending of all these qualities with only slight decline in some of his work appearing at the close of his life. His influence was to be considerable. He directly influenced Harushige, Koryüsai, Shunshö, Bunchö, Kiyotsune, Chöki, and Eisho -- some of the most distinguished artists of the game.
Research by: Howard A. Link.
