(b Edo [now Tokyo], 1711; d Edo, 1785). Japanese painter, print designer and book illustrator. One of the finest ukiyoe (‘pictures of the floating world’) printmakers active in the mid-18th century, Toyonobu was born into a samurai family. He may have studied under the printmaker Nishimura Shigenaga (?1697–1756), and many scholars identify him with the artist who styled himself Nishimura Magosaburo (before 1730) and Nishimura Shigenobu (1730–47). From 1747 until the end of his career as a print designer, he worked under the name Ishikawa Toyonobu. In the mid-1760s he inherited from his father-in-law an inn in Edo’s Kodenmacho district. As innkeeper, he employed the name that was used by successive heads of the family, Nukaya Shichibei. He largely abandoned his artistic activities in the last two decades of his life. Toyonobu’s early works reflect the influence of the TORII school. Thus, his yakushae (‘pictures of actors’) and bijinga (‘pictures of beautiful women’) of the 1730s and early 1740s feature robust, columnar figures with heads held erect. His manner later changed considerably, and after 1747 the figures of courtesans and youths became more slender and willowy, with tilted heads and bent knees. Even his depictions of mature actors possess a certain suave elegance. A speciality of Toyonobu was the depiction of beauties in déshabillé, with loose robes revealing breasts and legs. Courtesan Going to Bed (1750; New York, Met.) is representative of Toyonobu’s mature style. Similar qualities appear in the work of Toyonobu’s influential, older contemporaries, Okumura Masanobu and Nishikawa Sukenobu.

• Ishikawa Toyonobu
  • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(a): Prints, c 1600–c 1760
  • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(a): Prints, c 1600–c 1760