Shinsui Itō was the pseudonym of a Nihonga painter and ukiyo-e woodblock print artist in Taishō- and Shōwa-period Japan. He was one of the great names of the shin-hanga art movement, which revitalized the traditional art after it began to decline with the advent of photography in the early 20th century. His real name was Itō Hajime.
Itō Shinsui circa 1954
Before the Mirror
The Fragrance of a Bath (1930)
In front left side: Shirô Kawamatsu, right side Shôzaburô Watanabe. In the back from left: Moriyama, Kawase Hasui, American couple, Itō Shinsui and his wife (1941)
Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. The term ukiyo-e translates as 'picture[s] of the floating world'.
Tokugawa Ieyasu established his government in the early 17th century in Edo (modern Tokyo).Portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Kanō school painting, Kanō Tan'yū, 17th century
The Hikone screen may be the oldest surviving ukiyo-e work, dating to c. 1624–1644.
Early woodblock print, Hishikawa Moronobu, late 1670s or early 1680s
Standing portrait of a courtesanInk and colour painting on silk, Kaigetsudō Ando, c. 1705–10
