Nishimura Shigenaga

Nishimura Shigenaga (Japanese: 西村 重長; c. 1697 – 23 July 1756) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist.

Shigenaga was born c. 1697 in Edo (modern Tokyo).^[1] He worked as a landlord in Tōriabura-chō^[2] before moving to the Kanda district, where he ran a bookshop and taught himself art; his work began to appear c. 1719. He worked in a variety of genres and formats.^[1] His earlier work tended to be yakusha-e portraits of kabuki actors in the style of the Torii school; his later work is in an idiom more his own, incorporating the influence of Okumura Masanobu and Nishikawa Sukenobu.^[2]

Shigenaga's better-known work includes the series Fifty-four Sheets of Genji, a collaborative series with Torii Kiyomasu II in c. 1730–35; and the Picture Book of Edo Souvenirs in 1753.^[1] He produced some of the earliest ukiyo-e landscape prints; in 1727, his was the first set of prints of Lake Biwa.^[3] His work had a strong influence on later artists such as Suzuki Harunobu and Ishikawa Toyonobu,^[1] who may have been students of Shigenaga's;^[4] Toyonobu may have been Nishimura Shigenobu, Shigenaga's most prominent student.^[2]

• Prints by Shigenaga
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References

1. Marks 2012, p. 38.
2. Michener 1954, p. 396.
3. King 2010, p. 45.
4. Marks 2012, p. 38; Michener 1954, p. 396.

Works cited

• King, James (2010). Beyond the Great Wave: The Japanese Landscape Print, 1727–1960. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-0343-0317-0.
• Marks, Andreas (2012). Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks: 1680–1900. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4629-0599-7.
• Michener, James Albert (1954). The Floating World. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0873-0.

External links

• Media related to Nishimura Shigenaga at Wikimedia Commons