Koryūsai

In this Japanese name, the family name is Isoda.

File:Koryusai - Hinagata wakana no hatsu moyo.jpg

Hinagata wakana no hatsu moyō

Isoda Koryūsai (礒田湖龍斎, 1735–1790) was a Japanese ukiyo-e printmaker and painter active from 1769 to 1790.

Life and career

Koryūsai was born in 1735 and worked as a samurai in the service of the Tsuchiya clan. He became a masterless rōnin after the death of the head of the clan and moved to Edo (modern Tokyo) where he settled near Ryōgoku Bridge in the Yagenbori area. He became a print designer there under the art name Haruhiro in 1769, at first making samurai-themed designs. The ukiyo-e print master Harunobu died in 1770, and about that time Koryūsai began making prints in a similar style of life in the pleasure districts.

Koryūsai was a prolific designer of individual prints and print series in the 1770s. The series Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana no hatsumoyō, 1776–81) ran for 140 prints, the longest ukiyo-e print series of beauties known. He designed at least 350 hashira-e pillar prints, numerous kachō-e birds-and-flowers prints, a great number of shunga erotic prints, and others.

In 1782 Koryūsai applied for and received the Buddhist honour hokkyō ("Bridge of the Law"), and thereafter used the title as part of his signature. His output slowed from this time, though he continued to design prints until his death in 1790.

External links

• Works
• Kimbell Art Foundation
• Artelino
• Museum of Fine Arts Boston
• Fine Arts Museum San Francisco