Kubo Shunman (; – 26 October 1820) was a Japanese artist and writer. He produced

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

prints and paintings, ''

gesaku is an alternative style, genre, or school of Japanese literature. In the simplest contemporary sense, any literary work of a playful, mocking, joking, silly or frivolous nature may be called gesaku. Unlike predecessors in the literary field, gesa ...

'' novels, and ''

kyōka ''Kyōka'' (, "wild" or "mad poetry") is a popular, parodic subgenre of the tanka form of Japanese poetry with a metre of 5-7-5-7-7. The form flourished during the Edo period (17th–18th centuries) and reached its zenith during the Tenmei era ...

'' and

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

poetry.

Life and career

Shunman was born in about 1757 (

Hōreki , also known as Horyaku, was a after '' Kan'en'' and before ''Meiwa''. The period spanned the years from October 1751 through June 1764. The reigning emperor and empress were and . Change of era * 1751 : The new era of ''Hōreki'' (meaning "V ...

7 on the

Japanese calendar Japanese calendar types have included a range of official and unofficial systems. At present, Japan uses the Gregorian calendar together with year designations stating the Japanese era name, year of the reign of the current Emperor. The written f ...

) with the surname of either Kubo () or Kubota () and the given name Yasubei ( or ). He was orphaned while young. He studied under , a poet,

kokugaku was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Edo period. scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of ...

scholar, and painter in the style of the Chinese Shen Quan. He later also studied under the ukiyo-e artist

Kitao Shigemasa was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist from Edo. He was one of the leading printmakers of his day, but his works have been slightly obscure. He is noted for images of beautiful women ('' bijinga''). He was taught by Shigenaga and has been referred to as ...

. Upon finishing his apprenticeship took the

art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin Chinese), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by artists, poets and writers in the Sinosp ...

''Shunman'' (first spelt , later ). Other art names he used include Shōsadō () and Sashōdō (), both of which use the character 左 ''sa'', meaning "left", as he was left-handed. Early in his career he published as a

novelist under the names Nandaka Shiran () and Kizandō (), as a ''

'' poet under the name Hitofushi Chitsue (), and as a

poet under the name (). He had a heightened sense of beauty and devoted himself to the pleasure-seeking world. Shunman's earliest works dates t o 1774: a votive plaque copied from Nahiko. His works include some

prints, book illustrations, paintings, illustrated novels, and poetry. He was the most prolific producer of paintings in the

Kitao school Kitao (written: 北尾) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Kanako Kitao (born 1982), Japanese-American synchronized swimmer *, Japanese sumo wrestler and professional wrestler *, Japanese shogi player *, Japanese anima ...

; more than 70 of his paintings survive. His best known prints come from the

Tenmei is a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', literally "years name") for the years between the An'ei Era and before the Kansei Era, from April 1781 through January 1789. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1781 : The new era name of Ten ...

(1781–1789) through the

Kansei was a after '' Tenmei'' and before '' Kyōwa''. This period spanned the years from January 1789 through February 1801. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1789 : The new era name of '' Kansei'' (meaning "Tolerant Government" or "Broad- ...

(1789–1801) eras, when Shunman tended toward boldly florid colours in his prints, and adhered to the ("red-hating") trend of avoiding reds and other flashy colours. His ''

bijin-ga is a generic term for pictures of beautiful women () in Japanese art, especially in woodblock printing of the ukiyo-e genre. Definition defines as a picture that simply "emphasizes the beauty of women", and the ''Shincho Encyclopedia of W ...

'' portraits of beauties were less in the stately style of his master Shigemasa than in that of the long, slender beauties of

Torii Kiyonaga Torii Kiyonaga (; 1752 – June 28, 1815) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Torii school. Originally Sekiguchi Shinsuke, the son of an Edo bookseller, from Motozaimokuchō Itchōme in Edo, he took on Torii Kiyonaga as an art name. Altho ...

. Shunman was a member of the poets' clubs Bakuro-ren and Rokujuen, and became head of Bakuro-ren. He stopped making designing commercial prints in 1790 to focus on deluxe commissioned prints, and provided poetry for the prints of

Hokusai , known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Gr ...

Utamaro was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his ''Bijin-ga, bijin ōkubi-e'' "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. He also produ ...

, and

Eishi was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. His last name was Hosoda (細田). His first name was Tokitomi (時富). His common name was Taminosuke (民之丞) and later Yasaburo (弥三郎). Pupil of Kanō Michinobu, Kano Eisen'in Michinobu (狩野栄川 ...

. File:Kubo Shunman Women smoking under cherry blossoms.JPG File:Kubo Shunman Départ nocturne pour un concours de poésie, vers 1787.JPG File:Sumiyoshi odori Kubo Shunman.jpg File:Kubo Shunman - Toi.jpg File:Five cranes on a spit of sand. Surimono by Kubo Shunman (CBL J 2284).jpg, Five cranes on a spit of sand.

Surimono are a genre of Japanese woodblock print. They were privately commissioned for special occasions such as the New Year. Surimono literally means "printed thing". Being produced in small numbers for a mostly educated audience of ''literati'', ...

, probably 1816.

Chester Beatty Library The Chester Beatty Library, now known as the Chester Beatty, is a museum and library in Dublin. It was established in Ireland in 1953, to house the collections of mining magnate, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. The present museum, on the grounds of ...

File:Objects Representing the Ceremony of Exorcising Demons, One of the New Year Performances.jpg, ''Objects Representing the Ceremony of Exorcising Demons, One of the New Year Performances'', surimono, 18th century. The Met.

References

Works cited

* *

External links

* 18th-century Japanese artists 19th-century Japanese artists Ukiyo-e artists {{Japan-artist-stub