benizuri-e

Throughout the roughly twenty years of their popularity, from the 1740s to the 1760s, the number of woodblocks used per print gradually increased but remained below five. The technique was refined chiefly through private commissions such as surimono and calendars, before being adapted for the wider commercial market that nishiki-e would later dominate. The production of benizuri-e reached its peak in the early 1740s. Torii Kiyohiro, Torii Kiyomitsu I, Torii Kiyonobu I, Okumura Masanobu, Nishimura Shigenaga, and Ishikawa Toyonobu are the artists most closely associated with benizuri-e.

• Illustration — Woodblock print by Ishikawa Toyonobu of kabuki actors Onoe Kikugorō I and Nakamura Kiyosaburō as a young seated couple playing a shamisen signed 'Meijōdō Ishikawa Shūha Toyonobu zu', 1750–1758 • Illustration — Woodblock print by Ishikawa Toyonobu of kabuki actors Nakamura Shichisaburō II and Sanogawa Ichimatsu, signed 'Meijōdō Ishikawa Shūha Toyonobu zu', 1740s • Illustration — Actor Ichikawa Ebizō II as Yanone Gorō in the kabuki play Koizome Sumidagawa, woodblock print by Torii Kiyomitsu I, Honolulu Museum of Art • Illustration — 18th century Benizuri-e of Sei Shōnagon, author of The Pillow Book, attributed to Tsukioka Settei