Gathering Spring Flowers

1765

The first full-colour nishiki-e prints

The calendar prints became the first nishiki-e (“brocade prints”), and their origin is traced to 1765: Harunobu printed a single image from several separate blocks, up to ten colours on a sheet, and was the first ukiyo-e artist to use more than three colours consistently; notches and wedges held the paper in place so that the successive printings stayed in register. Paid for by wealthy patrons, he used the best materials — cherry wood instead of catalpa and more expensive colours applied more thickly for a more opaque effect.

1765–1770

Five years at his peak: 20 books and a thousand prints

Between 1765 and 1770 Harunobu created over twenty illustrated books, over one thousand colour prints (other accounts give more than eight hundred works) and a number of paintings.

1765–1770

Recognised as the master of ukiyo-e and widely imitated

In the last years of his life Harunobu came to be regarded as the master of ukiyo-e and was widely imitated: many artists copied his style during his lifetime.

late 1760s

Master of bijin-ga and scenes of Edo life

Harunobu became one of the primary producers of pictures of beautiful women (bijin-ga) and scenes of urban life for the Edo print connoisseur market: his prints include not only geisha, courtesans and sumo wrestlers but also street vendors and errand boys. Accounts differ on portraits of kabuki actors: by some he was among the first to paint them, by others he scornfully refused the subject.