Artist in Focus - Suzuki Harunobu

Suzuki Harunobu's birth place and date are unknown but it is believed that he grew up in Kyoto. Little is known of his early life, but he was 46 years old when he died in 1770.

Harunobu was the first to produce full colour prints (known as nishiki-e) in 1765, thus rendering the former modes of two and three colour prints obsolete. He used versatile techniques and depicted a range of subjects.

In the late 1760's, Harunobu became one of the primary producers of bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) and created over twenty illustrated books. Between 1765 and 1769, he produced over a thousand colour prints and paintings.

He was regarded as the master of ukiyo-e (woodblock printing with many colours) during the last years of his life and his style was widely imitated