Background
Koryūsai was born in 1735 and worked as a samurai in the service of the Tsuchiya clan.
礒田湖龍斎
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, 1776-1781) 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
His output slowed from this time, though he continued to design prints until his death in 1790.