Beauty and Child

Regarded as the founder of the Torii school, Torii Kiyonobu was the son of Torii Kiyomoto (1645–1702), an “onnagata” (a kabuki actor specializing in female roles) who was also noted for his skill in painting and is said to have produced signboards for theater façades. Around 1690, father and son are thought to have moved to Edo, where they began creating signboards for the Ichimura-za and other theaters. This period marks the beginning of the close association between Edo kabuki and the Torii school, which thereafter became responsible not only for signboards but also for actor prints and playbills, symbolizing the interconnection of kabuki and ukiyo-e.

Kiyonobu is believed to have trained in painting from an early age. His style shows the influence of contemporaries such as Hishikawa Moronobu and the Kaigetsudō school, yet he also established the distinctive visual idiom of the Torii school, shaped by its close ties to kabuki. In particular, he developed bold, exaggerated linework with pronounced variation in thickness to capture the dynamic stage presence of Ichikawa Danjūrō I known as “aragoto” (bold and exaggerated acting style). This manner of drawing, known as “hyōtan-ashi mimizu-biki” (gourd-shaped legs, earthworm lines), became the hallmark of the Torii school.
Beyond actor prints, Kiyonobu also produced hand-painted works, including bijinga (pictures of beauties) and erotic subjects. Together with artists of the Hishikawa and Kaigetsudō schools, he played a formative role in early ukiyo-e, bridging actor prints and bijinga while laying the foundations for the Torii school’s long-standing association with kabuki.

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(References)
- Muto, Junko. “Shosei Torii Kiyomasu kō (A Study of Torii Kiyomasu I).” Ukiyo-e Geijutsu, no. 106, 1992.
- Yasuda, Gōzō. “Torii Kiyonobu・Kiyomasu ron (On Torii Kiyonobu and Kiyomasu).” Ukiyo-e Geijutsu, 1987–1988.
- Torii-ha no Yakusha-e (Actor Prints of the Torii School). Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation and Ricker Museum, 1972.