Hishikawa Moronobu Memorial Museum

Hishikawa Moronobu, called the “father of ukiyo-e”, was born in Hota, now Kyonan-machi, around 1630.  His father was a noted brocade artisan, and as a child he helped his family drawing rough sketches.  At the age of sixteen or so, Moronobu went to Kyoto to train himself in painting.  Studying the Kano-Tosa school and Kanga, Chinese style painting, he created his own style (Hishikawa art), pioneering the ukiyo-e painting style of the Edo period.  His art focused on the customs and manners of the Yoshiwara, a pleasure quarter at the time, and Kabuki theater.  Applying the techniques of wood-block printing, he succeeded in mass-producing and popularizing wood-block printed pictures.

The Hishikawa Moronobu Memorial is engaged in collecting and exhibiting ukiyo-e works and other works of Moronobu and his school.  The memorial was founded on March 21, 1985.　(Open Tuesday-Sunday, 9:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M.)