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 Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

'' painter and woodblock printmaker of the

Torii school A is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. The presence of a ''torii'' at the entrance is usually the simplest ...

, a specialist, like the rest of the Torii artists, in billboards and other images for the promotion of the

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to ...

theatres. Scholars are unsure as to Kiyomasu II's relation to the original Kiyomasu who came a few decades earlier; they may have been close relations, or master and student, or they may have been the same man. His prints, like many at the time, were made largely using the ''

urushi-e ''Urushi-e'' (漆絵 "lacquer picture ) refers to three different techniques in Japanese art. Though urushi-e is most associated with woodblock, the term urushi-e is not exclusive to that medium. It can also refer to pictures using lacquer as ...

'' (lacquer print) and '' benizuri-e'' (rose print) methods; the lines or outlines of the prints themselves would often be in monochrome or a limited number of colors and the rest would be done by hand. Richard Lane writes that the majority of Kiyomasu's work is "quite stereotyped, lacking in vitality or fertility of invention." Lane, Richard (1978). "Images of the Floating World." Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky. p74. He writes the same of the works of

Torii Kiyonobu II Torii Kiyonobu II ( ja, 二代目鳥居清信 ''Nidaime Torii Kiyonobu''; active 1725–1760) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. He headed the Torii artistic school from possibly as early as 1725, when its founder Torii Kiyonobu I reti ...

, but says of both artists that "in perhaps a quarter of their prints they manage to rise above the confines of their own limited talents and produce work of rare grace and charm."

Notes

References

* Lane, Richard. (1978). ''Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
OCLC 5246796
Torii school Ukiyo-e artists {{printmaker-stub