Torii Kotondo (, 21 November 1900 – 13 July 1976) or Torii Kiyotada V () was a Japanese painter and woodblock printer 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 ...

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 ...

artists. He followed his school's tradition of making prints 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 (''

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 ...

'') and involvement with commercial work for kabuki theater. His twenty-one ''

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 ...

'' (pictures of beautiful women) are particularly celebrated.

Life and career

Kotondo was born Saitō Akira () in the

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, which sprung up around the bridge of the same name that has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The curre ...

district of Tokyo. , the seventh head of the

artists, adopted Kotondo at age 15 and trained him in the school's specialty producing ''

'', portraits of

actors. Kotondo studied painting under the ''

yamato-e is a style of Japanese painting inspired by Tang dynasty paintings and fully developed by the late Heian period. It is considered the classical Japanese style. From the Muromachi period (15th century), the term yamato-e has been used to disting ...

'' painter from 1914 and under Kiyokata Kaburagi from 1918. Most of Kotondo's

woodblock prints Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. Each page or image is creat ...

date from 1927 to 1933. Kiyokata influenced Kontodo's ''

'' portraits along with ''

shin hanga was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized the traditional ''ukiyo-e'' art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century). It maintained the traditional ''ukiyo-e'' co ...

'' designers Goyō Hashiguchi and Itō Shinsui. In 1925 he exhibited some of his ''bijin-ga'' at the Inten exhibition. He designed twenty-one bijin-ga prints which were sold in the United States. Seventeen of Kontodo's prints were shown at the seminal shin hanga exhibition at the

Toledo Museum of Art The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...

in 1936.Torii Kotondo (1900-1976)
The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints Authorities considered Kotondo's print ''Morning Hair'' of 1930 provocative and banned it after seventy of its hundred copies had sold and had the remaining thirty destroyed. When Kiyotada died in 1941 Kotondo became the eighth head of the school and took the name Kiyotada V. Kotondo lectured at

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice, in 1889. The university's name is derived from the Ja ...

in Tokyo from 1966 to 1972. Collectors did not place a high value on Kotondo's prints while he was alive; the prints have since appreciated in collectability and fetch prices comparable to those of the great masters. Torii Kotondo - Woman Before a Mirror - Walters 95890.jpg, Torii Kotondo - Rain - Walters 95885.jpg, Torii Kotondo - Kamisuki (Combing Her Hair) - Walters 95889.jpg, Torii Kotondo - Make-up - Walters 95887.jpg, Torii Kotondo - Snow - Walters 95886.jpg,

References

Works cited

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External links

Torii Kotondo
at ukiyo-e.org {{Authority control 1900 births 1976 deaths Painters from Tokyo Shin hanga artists Torii school