Ishikawa Toyonobu (1711-1785) Japanese, Woodblock Print. Title: "Torioi with Onoe Kikugoro and Nakamura Kiyosaburo. Depicts two musicians playing samisens together.

Overall size: 21 X 16 in.

Sight size: 15 1/2 X 10 1/2 in.

#1609 .

Ishikawa Toyonobu was born in 1711 in Japan. He is theorized to be the same person as Nishimura Shigenobu, a contemporary ukiyo-e (“floating world”) artist about whom very little is known. A pupil of Nishimura Shigenaga, Toyonobu produced many monochrome urushi-e (“lacquer prints”) of kabuki actors and beautiful women, experimenting with semi-nude forms that were a foundational basis for the future of shunga (“erotica”) as a Japanese art style. Later in his career Toyonobu became the leading producer of color prints, chiefly benizuri-e (“rose prints”), but stopped making ukiyo-e shortly after Suzuki Harunobu pioneered the nishiki-e (“full-color print”) in 1765. He had one notable pupil, Ishikawa Toyomasa, who is known chiefly for his depictions of children at play, and who may have been Toyonobu's son. Today his vibrant depictions of prostitutes and courtesans alike are found all over the world in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Museo Nacional del Prado, and countless more exhibitions. He died in July 1785.

Location Box 9