Page 438 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

241 (detail)

Eastern Capital. Another inscription After painting in Miyake Island (Mi- ing in the Kano atelier — under the
(not in the artist's hand) states that yakejima) for nearly a decade under powerful Yasunobu, who worked for
mounting was finished by 1703. the moniker "Islander Itchó," he was both shogun and emperor — but
allowed to return to Edo in 1709. apparently was soon dismissed for
Itchó had been banished from Edo in failing to toe the artistic line. He is
1698 as punishment for depicting a Itchó's work may be viewed as a hybrid
shirabyóshi dancer in a boat, which was of traditional Kano-style painting and recognized as the head of the Hana-
construed as a parody of the concu- ukiyoe. His careful brushwork, conser- busa school of painting, and wood-
bine of the fifth Tokugawa shogun, vative vision, and serene tastefulness block-printed reproductions of his
Tsunayoshi, who is said to have betray his academic training, while sketchbooks and drawing instruction
the
enjoyed riding in pleasure boats. That his choice of subjects, coloristic dar- manuals — published late in after his
century, decades
eighteenth
image was widely reproduced by ing, and cheerful tone align him with death — had a broad influence on
other artists and became a popular ukiyoe artists. He received early train- artists of all schools. JTC
pictorial theme of later ukiyoe artists.