87 - Harunobu: Woman Visiting the Shrine in the Night

Harunobu: Woman Visiting the Shrine in the Night

Another bijinga from one of the greatest ukiyo-e masters, Suzuki Harunobu.

50 - Harunobu: Bijinga

Harunobu: Bijinga

Undoubtedly, Harunobu was one of the earliest, greatest, and most innovative of the ukiyo-e masters. In his best works, primarily bijinga, the female figures possess an elegance few other artists have been able to achieve.

Here he displays a bijin sitting on the back of an ox. A peculiar and precarious position, yet the figure has not lost anything of its gracefulness.

18 - Kôkan: Girl on a veranda

Kôkan: Girl on a veranda

Shiba Kôkan (1747-1818), or Suzuki Harushige, was a very skilled artist who worked with a large number of styles and techniques. One of his specialities were woodblock prints in Harunobu's style. He even signed some of them with Harunobu's name. Today we would call that forgery.

This print is “Girl on a veranda” by Kôkan - falsely signed “Harunobu”. Note that Kôkan imitated Harunobu's style, but made his own picture.

01 - Harunobu: A girl on a veranda

Harunobu: Girl on a veranda

Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770) was the first woodblock artist who made full-colour prints, so-called nishiki-e. That, in combination with other innovations in technique, format, material, and style, makes him one of the most important masters of ukiyo-e.

This woodblock print shows a bijin, a beautiful girl. It is the typically petite girl of Harunobu's art: a slender, elegant figure - almost a child. While many other ukiyo-e-artists paid an immense attention to the kimono and its pattern, these aspects play a relatively small role in Haronubu's bijinga. On the other hand, he was the first artist to make real backgrounds, an environment for his figures.