Suzuki Harunobu
Inventor of the full-colour woodblock print.
In 1765 Suzuki Harunobu made the first woodblock prints in many colours, nishiki-e. His young, delicate figures are poetic and dreamlike.
Suzuki Harunobu was born around 1725 and worked in Edo, present-day Tokyo. He died in 1770. We know very little about his life. He is thought to have studied with the painter Nishimura Shigenaga, and his early prints follow the usual style of the time with two or three colours.
The great breakthrough came in 1765. Wealthy amateurs and poetry clubs in Edo commissioned lavish calendars in the form of woodblock prints, in which the lengths of the months were concealed in the picture. Harunobu received the commission, and together with skilled carvers and printers he developed the technique of printing with many colour blocks, one for each colour. Small registration marks on the woodblocks ensured that the colours landed exactly in place. The result was called nishiki-e, brocade pictures, and became the standard for Japanese woodblock prints for over a hundred years.
Harunobu's pictorial world is poetic and tranquil. His young women and men are slender, delicate and almost childlike, with small hands and feet. They move lightly through homes, gardens and snowy landscapes. He often alluded to classical poetry and literature by transposing old motifs to his own day. He also depicted real people, such as the teahouse waitress Kasamori Osen, who became a celebrated beauty thanks to his pictures.
Harunobu was extremely productive in his last five years and made hundreds of prints. His technique and style laid the foundations for the golden age of ukiyo-e that followed, with artists such as Kiyonaga, Utamaro and later Hokusai. His prints are now in major collections around the world.