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Shigemasa

1739–1820

Family name: Kitabatake. Childhood name: Tarōkichi. Given name: Kyūgorō, Sasuke. Art surname: Kitao. Art names: Hokuhō, Kōsuisai, Kōsuiken, Suihō Itsujin, et al. Poet name: Karan.

Kitao Shigemasa was born in 1739 as the eldest son of the bookseller and publisher Suharaya Mohei of Nihonbashi. He was originally self-taught and only later became a student of the print artist Nishimura Shigenaga. He specialized in beautiful women, at first strongly influenced by Harunobu, but his main area of activity was illustrating books, starting in 1765. Over 250 are known by him, several of them wiTherotic content. Shigemasa made himself also known as a poet and painter. He worked for over 20 publishers, foremost Tsutaya Jūzaburō. Among his most famous works is the chūban series “Silkworm Cultivation” (Kaiko yashinai gusa), produced from about 1772 in collaboration with Shunshō. Another collaborative project with Shunshō is the illustrations to the book “Mirror of Competing Beauties of the Green Houses” (Seirō bijin awase sugata kagami) from 1776.

Shigemasa had several students and was the founder of the Kitao School. His students included Kubo Shunman (1757–1820) and Kitao Masanobu (Santō Kyōden, 1761–1816). Shigemasa passed away on the 24th day of the first month 1820, aged 82.

early 1770s Tale of ōeyama. Hashira-e. Publisher: Urokogataya Magobei. Library of Congress. Unlisted in Pins 1982.

early 1770s Sugawara no Michizane seated on a platform under a pine and a plum tree. Chūban. Library of Congress.

c.1772. No. 10—Boiling the cocoons, from the series “Silkworm Cultivation” (Kaiko yashinai gusa). Chūban. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, The Netherlands.

1772. The actors Ichikawa Yaozō II as Nuregami Chōgorō and Iwai Hanshirō IV as Ume no Oyoshi in the play Futatsu chōchō kuruwa nikki, Nakamura Thetaer, VIII/1772. Hosoban benizuri-e. Publisher: Iseya Kōshichi. Collection Peter Rieder. Unlisted in Mutō 2005.