Attributed to Hishikawa Moronobu
Japan · Ukiyo-e
The story
Hishikawa Moronobu, who died in Edo in 1694, is usually named as the founder of ukiyo-e as an art of both prints and paintings, pictures of the floating world, the theatres and pleasure quarters of Japan's growing cities. The son of an embroiderer from Awa province, across the bay from Edo, he began by designing patterns for textiles. In Edo, the city now called Tokyo, he turned to illustrated books, the earliest signed one dated 1672, and to single-sheet woodblock prints, and he also painted hanging scrolls and folding screens for wealthier clients.
Attributed to Hishikawa Moronobu is the label a museum gives a work its specialists believe is his, when nothing proves it beyond doubt. A seal with his name does not settle the matter. His son Morofusa and pupils such as Furuyama Moroshige worked in his manner as the Hishikawa school, and their pictures can be very hard to separate from his.
The prints raise the same question, since most of them carry no signature at all.
