Nishimura Shigenaga (; – 23 July 1756) was a Japanese

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 ...

artist. Shigenaga was born in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

(modern Tokyo). He worked as a landlord in Tōriabura-chō before moving to the

Kanda Kanda may refer to: People *Kanda (surname) * Kanda Bongo Man (born 1955), Congolese soukous musician Places *Kanda, Tokyo, an area in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan ** Kanda Station (Tokyo), a railway station in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo *Kanda River, a riv ...

district, where he ran a bookshop and taught himself art; he is not known to have had a teacher. His work began to appear . He worked in a variety of genres and formats. His earlier work tended to be ''

yakusha-e ''Yakusha-e'' (役者絵), often referred to as "actor prints" in English, are Japanese woodblock prints or, rarely, paintings, of kabuki actors, particularly those done in the ''ukiyo-e'' style popular through the Edo period (1603–1867) and i ...

'' portraits of

kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

actors in the style of the

Torii school The Torii school (鳥居派, ''-ha'') was a school of ''ukiyo-e'' painting and printing founded in Edo. The primary producers of kabuki theater signboards and other promotional materials, the Torii were among those whose work led to the developme ...

; his later work is in an idiom more his own, incorporating the influence of

Okumura Masanobu Okumura Masanobu (; 1686 – 13 March 1764) was a Japanese print designer, book publisher, and painter. He also illustrated novelettes and in his early years wrote some fiction. At first his work adhered to the Torii school, but later drifted be ...

and Nishikawa Sukenobu. Other genres he worked in include landscapes, '' kachō-e'' pictures of scenes of nature, and historical scenes. He made a number of ''

uki-e refers to a genre of ukiyo-e pictures that employs western conventions of linear perspective. Although they never constituted more than a minor genre, pictures in perspective were drawn and printed by Japanese artists from their introduction in ...

'' "floating pictures" incorporating

geometric perspective Linear or point-projection perspective () is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, generally on a flat surface, of ...

. The number of ''uki-e'' he produced was second only to Masanobu, who asserted himself the originator of the technique. Shigenaga's better-known work includes the series ''Fifty-four Sheets of Genji'', a collaborative series with Torii Kiyomasu II in ; and the ''Picture Book of Edo Souvenirs'' in 1753. He produced some of the earliest ukiyo-e landscape prints; in 1727, his was the first set of prints of

Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan. It is located entirely within Shiga Prefecture (west-central Honshu), northeast of the former capital city of Kyoto. Lake Biwa is an ancient lake, over 4 million years old. It is estimated to be the 13 ...

. His work had a strong influence on later artists such as

Suzuki Harunobu Suzuki Harunobu (; ) was a Japanese designer of woodblock print art in the style. He was an innovator, the first to produce full-color prints () in 1765, rendering obsolete the former modes of two- and three-color prints. Harunobu used many spe ...

and

Ishikawa Toyonobu was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' print artist. He is sometimes said to have been the same person as Nishimura Shigenobu, a contemporary ''ukiyo-e'' artist and student of Nishimura Shigenaga about whom very little is known. A pupil of Nishimura Sh ...

, who may have been students of Shigenaga's; Toyonobu may have been Nishimura Shigenobu, Shigenaga's most prominent student. Nishimura Shigenaga - Untitled - Google Art Project.jpg Nishimura Shigenaga - Komachi Washing the Poem-Papers - Google Art Project.jpg Nishimura Shigenaga - Four Seasons – Autumn Moon above the Reception Room.jpg 'Children at Play' by Nishimura Shigenaga, mid 1750s, Honolulu Museum of Art, 15581.JPG Nishimura Shigenaga - 3 Songs by 3 Pairs of Lovebirds (Sanbuku-tsui hiyoku sankyoku).jpg

References

Works cited

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External links

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