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KIYOTADA Torii IV
(Torii VII) |
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| Jusôsô Tadakiyo
hitsu 寿双々忠清筆 |
Tadakiyo hitsu 忠清筆 |
Tadakiyo ga 忠清画 |
Signatures of Torii KIYOTADA-VII
Artist – Torii
Kiyotada IV 鳥居清忠 (4代目) was born
on March 28, 1875. Torii Kiyotada IV was
the fourth of the Kiyotada name and the seventh generation
head of the Torii school (Torii
VII, 鳥居 七代目). All in all printmakers
for the kabuki
theater. He was a distinguished ukiyo- e
artist from the Meiji period to the early Showa period.
At the age of eighteen, he studied Tosa-style painting with Kawabe Mitate (1837-1905), but four years later "he returned to the family tradition, and dedicated himself to mastering the Torii style under the guidance of his father Kiyosada. Like his father he had a close association with kabuki. He himself was an amateur actor, creating actor pictures and theater advertisements for the Kabuki-za, Shintimo-za, Meiji-za and Imperial Theater.
Torii Kiyotada’s most famous works are his 1895-1896 series of actor prints created with his father Torii Kiyosada VI titled "The Kabuki Eighteen" ("kabuki jūhachiban", "歌舞伎十八番"), illustrating characters in each of eighteen plays selected by Ichikawa Ebizō V (Ichikawa Danjūrō VII) in 1840 as the most representative aragoto (rough-stuff) plays of the Ichikawa Danjūrū line of actors. Art critic Lawrence Smith writes that "The portfolio seems have been designed by Kiyotada using original sketches by his father Kiyosada, who was a contemporary of Danjūrō." He also designed a second series around Kabuki jūhachiban that was sold by subscription by Oana Shūjirō of Shūbisha, with two prints appearing each month over a period of nine months from 1926-1927. Torii Kiyotada also created senso-e prints of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
Personal
life -
Torii Kiyotada
VII was born in Edo (Tokyo) with the given name Saitō Chōkichi
斎藤 長吉. His father was the artist Torii Kiyosada
(1844-1901). Torii Kiyotada VII was the fourth of the Kiyotada
(KIYOTADA Torii-IV) name and the seventh generation of Torii
family printmakers for the kabuki theater (Torii
KIYOTADA-VII). Torii
Kiyotada VII died August
3 in 1941.
Aliases - He signed as Tadakiyo (忠清), Jusoso Takdakiyo (寿双々忠清), Kiyotada (清忠), Gekigadō (劇雅堂), Kunsai (薫斎), Manjinoya (卍廼舎), Nanryō (南陵), and Suisha (酔舎).
Disciples - His adopted son, Saitō
Akira, was the famous shin
hanga print artist Torii Kotondo (Torii VIII)
(1900-1976). Ueno Tadamasa (1904-1970), a student of
Kiyotada’s, was authorized by the Torii family to use the name
of Torii Tadamasa in 1949.
Copyright 2008 ff: Hans P. Boehme