(b Kyoto, 1671; d Kyoto, 1750). Japanese woodblock print designer, book illustrator and painter. Unlike most ukiyoe (‘pictures of the floating world’) artists, who were based in Edo (now Tokyo), Sukenobu lived in the imperial capital Kyoto. He studied painting with Kano Eino (1631–97), and possibly with Tosa Mitsusuke (see TOSA, (1)). He first produced book illustrations for the celebrated Kyoto publisher Hachimonjiya Jisho (d 1745) in 1699. The earliest works attributed to Sukenobu are Yakusha kuchijamisen (‘Actor humming shamisen tune’; 3 vols; Tokyo, Waseda U.), a Yakusha hyobanki (‘Record of the reputation of actors’; a discussion of actors’ performances and appearance) and the script for a kabuki play, Amidagaike Shin Teramachi (‘Amida pond in Shin Teramachi’). His earliest signed work is Shin kanninki (‘New patience story’; 7 vols; Tokyo, N. Diet Lib.), an ukiyo zoshi (‘tales of the floating world’; popular fiction). In the 1710s Sukenobu continued his close association with Hachimonjiya, producing drawings for several hinagatabon (kimono pattern sample books), including Shotoku hinagata (‘Kimono pattern of the Shotoku period’; 4 vols; 1713; Tokyo, Tama A.U.), Kyoho hinagata (‘Kimono pattern of the Kyoho period’; 1716; London, BM [incomplete]) and Nishikawa hinagata (‘Nishikawa kimono pattern’; 5 vols; 1718; New York, Pub. Lib.), in which nichijo seikatsuzu (‘scenes of everyday life’) of women choosing kimonos appear alongside the samples. His first ehon (‘picture book’), Hyakunin joro shinasadame (‘Appreciating 100 women’; 2 vols; 1723), evolved from these nichijozu (everyday scenes). Depicting women of all classes, from the empress to a street walker, the book was a popular success and was reprinted many times.

• Nishikawa Sukenobu
  • Kyoto, §II, 2: Art life, 13th–19th centuries
  • pupils
    • Suzuki Harunobu
  • works
    • Japan, §VI, 4(iv)(b): Painting: Late: Genre painting: Ukiyoe
    • Japan, §IX, 2(iii): Illustrated books, Edo period and after
    • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(a): Prints, c 1600–c 1760
    • Pattern book, §II: Japanese
  • writings
    • Japan, §XVII, 2(iii): Painting treatises: Other schools