are a type of "primitive" ''

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 ...

'' style

Japanese woodblock prints Woodblock printing in Japan (, ''mokuhanga'') is a technique best known for its use in the ''ukiyo-e'' artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (160 ...

. They were usually printed in

pink Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...

(''beni'') and green, occasionally with the addition of another color, either printed or added by hand. The production of ''benizuri-e'' reached its peak in the early 1740s. Torii Kiyohiro, Torii Kiyomitsu I,

Torii Kiyonobu I Torii Kiyonobu I ( ja, 鳥居清信; – 22 August 1729) was a Japanese painter and printmaker in the ukiyo-e style, who is renowned for his work on kabuki signboards and related materials. Along with his father Torii Kiyomoto, ...

Okumura Masanobu Okumura Masanobu ( ja, 奥村政信; 1686 – 13 March 1764) was a Japanese print designer, book publisher, and painter. He also illustrated novelettes and in his early years wrote some fiction. At first his work adhered to the Torii ...

Nishimura Shigenaga Nishimura Shigenaga ( ja, 西村重長; – 23 July 1756) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. Shigenaga was born in Edo (modern Tokyo). He worked as a landlord in Tōriabura-chō before moving to the Kanda district, where he ran a bookshop ...

, and

Ishikawa Toyonobu was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' print artist. He is sometimes said to have been the same person as Nishimura Shigenobu, a contemporary ''ukiyo-e'' artist and student of Nishimura Shigenaga about whom very little is known. A pupil of Nishimura Sh ...

are the artists most closely associated with ''benizuri-e''.

Gallery of benizuri-e

Woodblock print by Ishikawa Toyonobu of kabuki actors Onoe Kikugoro I and Nakamura Kiyosaburo.jpg,

Woodblock print 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 paper. Each page or image is create ...

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 ...

actors Onoe Kikugorō I and

Nakamura Kiyosaburō Nakamura may refer to: Places *Nakamura, Kōchi, a former city in Kōchi Prefecture, Japan *Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, a ward in Nagoya city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan People *Nakamura (surname), a list of people with the surname Other uses *Nakamura s ...

as a young seated couple playing a

shamisen The , also known as the or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usual ...

signed 'Meijōdō Ishikawa Shūha Toyonobu zu', 1750-1758 Actors Nakamura Shichisaburô II and Sanogawa Ichimatsu, Toyonobu, 1740s, signed Meijôdô Ishikawa Shûha Toyonobu zu, MFA.jpg, Woodblock print by

actors

Nakamura Shichisaburō II Nakamura may refer to: Places *Nakamura, Kōchi, a former city in Kōchi Prefecture, Japan *Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, a ward in Nagoya city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan People *Nakamura (surname), a list of people with the surname Other uses *Nakamura s ...

and

Sanogawa Ichimatsu was an 18th-century kabuki actor. He was born to a family of samurai in Fushimi in Yamashiro province and was adopted by Jinzô, an usher working at the Minamigawa no Shibai (Minami-za is the primary kabuki theatre in Kyoto, Japan. It was fo ...

, signed 'Meijōdō Ishikawa Shūha Toyonobu zu', 1740s Kiyomitsu I- Ichikawa Ebizô II as Yanone Gorô in 'Koizome Sumidagawa', HAA.jpg, Actor Ichikawa Ebizō II as Yanone Gorō in the kabuki play ''Koizome Sumidagawa'', woodblock print by Torii Kiyomitsu I,

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

Sei Shonagon - Tsukioka Settei.png, 18th century Benizuri-e of

Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese author, poet, and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi (Sadako) around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is the author of . Name Sei Shōnagon's actual given name is not known. It was the custom among aris ...

, author of ''

The Pillow Book is a book of observations and musings recorded by Sei Shōnagon during her time as court lady to Empress Consort Teishi during the 990s and early 1000s in Heian-period Japan. The book was completed in the year 1002. The work is a collection o ...

'', attributed to

Tsukioka Settei Tsukioka Settei (, 1710 – 22 January 1787) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. Settei was born in Ōmi Province and studied painting in Osaka in the style of the Kanō school under . He was strongly influenced by the work of the ukiyo-e artist N ...

References

* Lane, Richard. (1978). ''Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
OCLC 5246796
* Newland, Amy Reigle. (2005). ''Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints.'' Amsterdam: Hotei.
OCLC 61666175
* Roberts, Laurance P., ''A Dictionary of Japanese Artists'', Tokyo, Weatherhill, 1976, 218. {{Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e genres