Hishikawa Moronobu: from paintings to prints

Abstract

The first known ukiyo-e painter and print designer who produced images of the pleasure quarters, its courtesans and inhabitants was Hishikawa Moronobu, whose painting scroll Yoshiwara Fuzoku Zuken, as published in a Goto Museum catalog, was analyzed in comparison to the album Yoshiwara no tei, dealing with the same subject, published in ink-line printing technique (sumizuri-e). Other visual sources from contemporary artists such as Sukenobu, who designed many types of courtesans, and some literary sources from Saikaku were also analyzed, as they enhance certain characteristics closely related to Moronobu, not only in subject matter but also in the creation of a new media. Scrolls were understood here also as literature, visual literature, in the way images were connected and on their narrative aspect. Changes of scenes, election of certain aspects, descriptions of inner and outer spaces, depiction of different characters of the “floating world” were analyzed as they were treated in both media, painting scroll and picture album.