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[[Image:見返り美人sm.jpg|right|thumb|300px|''Mikaeri Bijin'', a handscroll painting in the style of Moronobu.]]
*''Born: [[1618]]<ref>Mason, Penelope. ''History of Japanese Art''. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. p280.</ref>''
*''Died: [[1694]]''
*''Died: [[1694]]''
*''Sons: [[Hishikawa Morofusa]]''
*''Sons: [[Hishikawa Morofusa]]''
*''Japanese'': 菱川師宣 ''(Hishikawa Moronobu)''
*''Japanese'': 菱川師宣 ''(Hishikawa Moronobu)''
Hishikawa Moronobu was a painter and print designer, considered today one of the chief founders or consolidators of the art form known as ''[[ukiyo-e]]''. Chronologically and stylistically, he represents the last of those who are sometimes called "the Ukiyo-e Primitives" and the first artists of post-Primitive, true ''ukiyo-e''.
Hishikawa Moronobu was a painter and print designer, considered today one of the chief founders or consolidators of the art form known as ''[[ukiyo-e]]''. Chronologically and stylistically, he represents the last of those who are sometimes called "the Ukiyo-e Primitives" and the first artists of post-Primitive, true ''ukiyo-e''. Moronobu may have been the first to sign his works as "''ukiyo-eshi''" ("Master of Pictures of the Floating World," or "Ukiyo-e Master").<ref>Melinda Takeuchi, ''Seduction: Japan's Floating World'', San Francisco: Asian Art Museum (2015), 9.</ref>
Born in [[Awa province]] (today [[Chiba prefecture]]) to a father who embroidered tapestries by trade, Moronobu first settled in [[Edo]] in the late 1660s. Having apparently picked up skills painting in the [[Tosa school|Tosa]] and [[Kano school|Kanô school]] modes, he soon became active as a [[fuzokuga|genre]] painter and book illustrator.
Born in [[Awa province]] (today [[Chiba prefecture]]) to a father who embroidered tapestries by trade, Moronobu's first artistic forays involved doing the underdrawings for the embroidery, on cloth. He first settled in [[Edo]] in the late 1660s. Having apparently picked up skills painting in the [[Tosa school|Tosa]] and [[Kano school|Kanô school]] modes, he soon became active as a [[fuzokuga|genre]] painter and book illustrator.
He may have studied under the [[Kambun Master]], one of the most prominent early ''ukiyo-e'' artists whose name, unfortunately, is lost to time. Moronobu did not simply copy older styles, however, but developed his own distinctive style, in which he would remain quite consistent throughout his works. ''Ukiyo-e'' specialist [[Richard Lane]] describes Moronobu's earlier works as "evocative yet somewhat austere, even slightly wooden," adding "Moronobu soon progressed to [a] more lively, dynamic style ... [his] figures [becoming] fuller and more rounded"<ref>Lane. p46.</ref>.
He may have studied under the [[Kambun Master]], one of the most prominent early ''ukiyo-e'' artists whose name, unfortunately, is lost to time. Moronobu did not simply copy older styles, however, but developed his own distinctive style, in which he would remain quite consistent throughout his works. ''Ukiyo-e'' specialist [[Richard Lane]] describes Moronobu's earlier works as "evocative yet somewhat austere, even slightly wooden," adding "Moronobu soon progressed to [a] more lively, dynamic style ... [his] figures [becoming] fuller and more rounded"<ref>Lane. p46.</ref>.