Sugawara Michizane crossing to China (Toto Tenjin)
c. 1770s
Medium
Woodblock print; hosoban, sumizuri-e
Dimensions
30.2 × 13.7 cm (11 7/8 × 5 3/8 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
22042
Art Historical Context
In the 1770s, Japanese ukiyo-e master Kitao Shigemasa crafted this captivating woodblock print, *Sugawara Michizane crossing to China (Toto Tenjin)*. Rendered in the narrow hosoban format—measuring just 30.2 × 13.7 cm—this sumizuri-e (monochrome black ink on paper) exemplifies the elegance of early Edo-period printmaking. Shigemasa, a versatile artist known for his actor portraits and genre scenes, captures a dramatic moment with fluid lines and subtle shading, evoking the vast sea and a lone figure in a boat. The subject, Sugawara Michizane (845–903), was a brilliant scholar, poet, and state...
About the Artist
Kitao Shigemasa · 1739–1820
Kitao Shigemasa (1739–1820), born in the bustling Nihonbashi district of Edo (modern Tokyo), emerged as a pivotal figure in ukiyo-e woodblock printing during Japan's Edo period. The eldest son of the bookseller Suharaya Mohei—from a lineage of publishers—Shigemasa, originally named Kitabatake Tarōkichi, was immersed in the world of printing from youth. Largely self-taught, he later studied under t...