Hishikawa Moronobu — Establishing Ukiyo-e as the Single Sheet

The First Man to Call Himself “Ukiyo-eshi”

Hishikawa Moronobu (c. 1618-1694) was the first painter in the history of ukiyo-e to call himself “Yamato-eshi” (Japanese-style painter) / “Ukiyo-eshi” (ukiyo-e painter). While Iwasa Matabei, treated in the previous article, was later positioned as “the ancestor of ukiyo-e,” Moronobu is decisively new in that he consciousized himself, in his own age, as “one who paints the floating world.”

Over his life he is said to have left more than 150 kinds of illustrated books and picture pamphlets, and thousands of single-sheet prints, and to have dominated the publishing market of the middle Edo era. In modern terms, he corresponds to the flagship author of a major publisher.

Origins — Son of a Bōshū Embroiderer

• Born around 1618, in the family of an embroiderer (nuihaku-shi) in Hota, Awa Province (present-day Kyonan, Chiba)
• Nuihaku is the artisan craft of applying gold thread, embroidery, and foil to kimono. From early childhood he took in the design of decorative patterns
• In his 20s he came to Edo, and self-taught the techniques of the Kanō and Tosa schools
• In the 1660s, he began working as an illustrator of picture pamphlets and illustrated books in Edo

His origin as an embroiderer’s son is important. The precision of clothing detail in Moronobu’s paintings and his sense of pattern design clearly come from the family trade.

Two Decisive Inventions

Moronobu played a decisive role in the history of ukiyo-e in two respects.

1. Shift from Folding Screens to Prints

Until then, genre painting was made as one-off hand-painted folding screens ordered by daimyō and wealthy merchants. Moronobu carried this into a form that could be mass-produced by woodblock printing. With the publisher (hanmoto) providing capital, and the drawing of the design, carving, and printing divided among specialists, prices of several tens of mon per sheet (equivalent to several hundred yen today) became possible for common people.

2. Establishment of the Single-Sheet Print (Ichimai-e)

Until then, ukiyo-e-like works were confined inside illustrated books. Moronobu put onto the market “single-sheet prints” independent from books. This meant:

• They became objects of appreciation, ownership, and gift-giving
• They could be displayed (pasted on walls or fusuma, mounted on folding screens)
• They could be bought individually by subject

With these two inventions, ukiyo-e rose as “a visual medium for the masses.” The origin point of print visual culture — through modern photographs, posters, goods, and stickers — lies with Moronobu.

Mikaeri Bijin-zu — Actually a Hand-Painted Work

The best-known of Moronobu’s works, Mikaeri Bijin-zu (Beauty Looking Back), is actually a hand-painted work, not a print (1690s, held by the Tokyo National Museum). It is a silk piece with color, about 63 cm tall, capturing the moment a woman in the style of a courtesan looks back.

That this work has been treated as “Moronobu’s representative piece” since the modern era is due to:

• The novel composition of drawing a single figure large (the background is nearly blank)
• Lyricism catching the moment of the turning back
• Being chosen in 1948 as the design of Japan’s first commemorative postage stamp, which gave it national fame

Even though the prints spread more widely, the reason “Mikaeri Bijin” is treated as his masterpiece is also a product of 20th-century reception.

Printed Books — Dominating Edo’s Publishing Market

Representative examples of Moronobu’s printed books (illustrated books):

• Buke Hyakunin Isshu (1672) — a cultural primer for the samurai class
• Yamato-e Tsukushi (1680) — a total view of famous places and manners
• Yoshiwara Koi no Michibiki (1678) — a Yoshiwara guidebook
• Tsuki-nami no Asobi (1681) — annual events of Edo
• Bijin-e Tsukushi (1683) — a compilation of women’s manners

These are all sumizuri-e (ink prints) — that is, monochrome prints in black. Sometimes hitsusai (hand-coloring) with vermilion, green, and yellow was added by brush. Full multicolor printing (the nishiki-e of Harunobu treated in the next article) still had to wait 80 years.

Moronobu’s Disciples and the Edo Painter Lineage

Many successors were raised in Moronobu’s workshop:

• Hishikawa Morofusa — his actual son, who inherited the illustrated books
• Sugimura Jihei — an independent town painter
• Torii Kiyomoto — the ancestor of the later Torii school (treated in the next article)

Especially the lineage leading to the Torii school was decisive in opening the biggest commercial genre of ukiyo-e, the actor print.

Nishikawa Sukenobu of Kyoto — Another Source

In the same period, in Kyoto, Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671-1750) rose to fame in hand-painted bijin-ga and picture-book illustrations. While the Edo line of Moronobu aimed at mass production and single-sheet prints, the Kyoto line of Sukenobu preserved the precision of hand painting and classical elegance.

These two great sources — Edo (Moronobu line) and Kyoto (Sukenobu line) — later converged in Edo in the mid-18th century, becoming the soil that produced Suzuki Harunobu’s nishiki-e.

Death and Influence on Later Ages

• Died around 1694 (Genroku 7), at about 76 years old
• Grave site at Tōyō-ji in Asakusa, Edo
• After his death, his disciples’ printed books continued to be reprinted for decades
• By the middle Edo era, the perception that “ukiyo-e means Moronobu” was firmly established

To position Moronobu in modern terms, he is “the man who turned ukiyo-e from a work of art into a medium.” The greatest achievement of Moronobu is this conversion — genre depiction, which had until then been for a wealthy minority, became a printed item that the townspeople of Edo could obtain for a few tens of mon.

From This Article to the Next

Independent from Moronobu’s lineage, a school appeared that would monopolize the genre of kabuki actor prints for over a hundred years — the Torii school. From the first-generation Torii Kiyomoto and Torii Kiyonobu to the late-Edo Kiyomine, the next article traces the history of the group that grew the actor print into “a major industry of ukiyo-e.”