was a Japanese ''

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...

'' printmaker who flourished from approximately 1681 to 1703. He is noted by art historian and ''ukiyo-e'' collector Richard Lane as an “indirect pupil” of

Hishikawa Moronobu Hishikawa Moronobu ( ja, 菱川師宣; 1618 – 25 July 1694) was a Japanese artist known for popularizing the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock prints and paintings in the late 17th century. He consolidated the works of scattered Japanese art s ...

. Much of Sugimura's work was once attributed to fellow followers of Moronobu, or Moronobu himself. In the 1920s, however, unsigned prints were discovered to have hidden signatures of Sugimura's incorporated in the drawing of the clothing folds. It appears Sugimura preferred (unlike most ''ukiyo-e'' artists) to sign with his surname rather than his given name. There are few contemporary texts with information on Sugimura. The earliest mention of him can be found in a directory of Edo artists from 1689, the ''Edo Zukan Kompuku,'' where he is listed with his name and address as “Woodblock Artist, Sugimura Jihei Masataka, Tori-Aburacho.” Ryutei Tanahiko's ''Yoshabako,'' published in 1841, also credits Sugimura as illustrator of two books which are not known to be extant. Sugimura illustrated at least 70 books, and created a number of large size prints along with many of the more standard sizes and formats. Judging from his extant works, it appears that Sugimura specialized in ''

shunga is a type of Japanese erotic art typically executed as a kind of ukiyo-e, often in woodblock print format. While rare, there are also extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e. Translated literally, the Japanese word ''shunga' ...

'', or erotic prints. ''Shunga'' prints make up two-thirds of his work. Sugimura's work is characterized by sensual charm and soft, hand-colored, watercolor renderings in ''sumizuri-e''. Some scholars judge his personal flamboyant and decorative style to be even more erotic than that of

. His subtle style and break away from his contemporary Moronobu's bold, black lines influenced later ''ukiyo-e'' artists to place more emphasis on color. A distinguishing characteristic of his book illustrations are literary '' mitate-e,'' or allusions to literature, unlike Moronobu's illustrations which usually featured purely artistic motifs instead. Also, it appears Sugimura preferred individual prints or album sheets as opposed to his mentor's bound book illustrations. The earliest signed '' kakemono-e,'' circa the late 1680s, is attributed to Sugimura. Though the known works of Sugimura Jihei are mostly ''shunga,'' he also created an ''ukiyo-e'' depiction based on a chapter of '' The Tale of Genji.'' His work, ''Kashiwagi to Onna San no Miya'' (''"Kashiwagi and the Third Princess"'')'','' is evocative of ''The Tale of Genji’s'' “Wakana jo” chapter.

References

* Michener, James. (1983). ''The Floating World, rev. ed''. United States of America: Random House, Inc. pp. 382, 383. . * Lane, Richard. (1978). ''Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. ; *Shirane, Haruo. (2008). ''Envisioning the Tale of Genji : media, gender, and cultural production''. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 181–3. .

External links

The Sugimura Jihei Genre Handscroll and the Floating World
by Honolulu Museum of Art Ukiyo-e artists 17th-century Japanese artists {{printmaker-stub