Tsukimaro (act. c.1794 - 1836 )
Tsukimaro Kitagawa was a painter and print artist at the turn of the 19th century. The star pupil of the famous Utamaro Kitagawa, Tsukimaro began his career designing bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) and kibyoshi (popular illustrated books, identifiable by their yellow covers) under the name Kikumaro. He adopted the name Tsukimaro in 1804. He continued to design prints under this name until the 1820s, at which point he shifted his primary focus to scroll painting and assumed the name Kansetsu. His painting usually depict beauties in a style inspired by the Maruyama-Shijo school. There is some disagreement about his year of birth and death, yet his last known print, an illustration in a kyoka anthology, dates to 1836.
Japanese Woodblock Prints (1800 - 1868)
By the 19th century, Japanese woodblock prints achieved extraordinary popularity. While the shogunate issued a battery of censorship reforms throughout the 1800s, artists ignored and evaded restrictions with images of indulgent beauties and vibrant kabuki actors. As constraints tightened in the 1840s, bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) became earthier in prints by Eizan and Eisen, while kabuki actors persevered in the work of Kunisada (aka Toyokuni III). During this period, ukiyo-e artists also added landscapes, warriors, ghosts and scenes of everyday life to their oeuvre. Artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige indulged a national wanderlust through Meisho-e or “famous place pictures,” while Kuniyoshi championed musha-e, a genre of warrior and legendary pictures.
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