Torii Kiyomitsu I (鳥居清光) (artist 1735 – 1785)
Kamejirō (common name: 亀次郎)Links
Biography:
Edo artists. Son and pupil of Kiyonobu II. He was the most important print maker until he was dwarfed by the work of Harunobu. He specialized in kabuki themes and in images of
bijin.
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"In the Torii family genealogy he is described as the third-generation head of the Torii school. Inoue Kazuo (1923) suggested he was the second son of Torii Kiyomasu II... HIs earliest known work is a kuro-bon, Taimen no biwa of 1747. In the later 1750s he suddenly became much more active in the field of single-sheet actor prints. Until the appearance of the nigao-e actor likenesses by Katsukawa Shunshō (d. 1792) and Ippitsusai Bunchō (active c. 1755-90) in the late 1760s, Kiyomitsu was the most dominant and most prolific designer of actor prints. At least 48 pillar pictures are known, mainly benizuri-e and including a considerable number of abuna-e.(risqué pictures).... He continued to produce nishiki-e single-sheet prints until the late 1770s, generally following innovations by other artists. During this period Kiyomitsu is thought to have concentrated on illustrated kabuki signboards... playbills and illustrations for popular literature. His pupil Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) became the fourth-generation head of the Torii school."
Quoted from: The Dawn of the Floating World by Timothy Clark, p. 58.
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As an illustrator for book publishers
Kiyomitsu drew illustrations for Iseya in 1747 and Urokogataya Magobe in 1758, 1763, 1767, 1771 and 1774-75.
