Miyagawa Choshun

1683 (age 70)

Miyagawa

Chōshun trained under artists of the Tosa and Kanō schools, as well as under the master of early ukiyo-e, Hishikawa Moronobu. His figures have a soft, warm femininity about them, and Richard Lane considers his coloring among the best in all of ukiyo-e art Though many of his pieces are clean ones of courtesans, Chōshun and his students also produced a great number of works of shunga (erotic paintings). In 1751, a few years before his death, Chōshun was commissioned by an artist of the Kanō school to perform some restoration work at the Nikkō Tōshō-gū. When Chōshun was not paid for his work, an altercation erupted which ended in the death of the Kanō artist at the hands of Chōshun"s son. As a result, Chōshun was banished from Edo for a year.

Miyagawa Choshun

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宮川長春

Background

He was born in Miyagawa, in Owari province, but lived much of his later life in Edo, where he died.

Career

Chōshun trained under artists of the Tosa and Kanō schools, as well as under the master of early ukiyo-e, Hishikawa Moronobu. His figures have a soft, warm femininity about them, and Richard Lane considers his coloring among the best in all of ukiyo-e art Though many of his pieces are clean ones of courtesans, Chōshun and his students also produced a great number of works of shunga (erotic paintings).

In 1751, a few years before his death, Chōshun was commissioned by an artist of the Kanō school to perform some restoration work at the Nikkō Tōshō-gū.

When Chōshun was not paid for his work, an altercation erupted which ended in the death of the Kanō artist at the hands of Chōshun"s son. As a result, Chōshun was banished from Edo for a year.

Achievements

Founder of the Miyagawa school, he and his pupils are among the few ukiyo-e artists to have never created woodblock prints.

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