View source for Miyagawa Chōshun

{{short description|Japanese painter (1683-1753)}}
[[Image:Shunga trio.jpg|300px|thumb|alt=|upright=2]]
{{family name hatnote|Miyagawa|lang=Japanese}}
'''Miyagawa Chōshun''' ({{langx|ja|宮川 長春}}; 1683&nbsp;– 18&nbsp;December 1753) was a Japanese painter in the [[ukiyo-e]] style. Founder of the Miyagawa school, he and his pupils are among the few ukiyo-e artists to have never created [[Woodblock printing in Japan|woodblock prints]]. He was born in Miyagawa, in [[Owari Province]], but lived much of his later life in [[Edo]], where he died.

Chōshun trained under artists of the [[Tosa school|Tosa]] and [[Kanō school]]s, as well as under the master of early ukiyo-e, [[Hishikawa Moronobu]]. These influences are evident in his works, along with those of the [[Kaigetsudō school]], but ultimately Chōshun, as the founder of a new school of painting, has a unique style all his own. His figures have a soft, warm femininity about them, and [[Richard Douglas Lane|Richard Lane]] considers his coloring among the best in all of ukiyo-e art.<ref name=Lane>[[Richard Douglas Lane|Lane, Richard]] (1978). "Images of the Floating World." Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky. p90.</ref> His works are almost exclusively of courtesans, and in his works these figures are fuller, and more voluptuous than those of many other artists, in particular those of the somewhat later artist [[Suzuki Harunobu|Harunobu]]. Though many of his pieces are clean ones of courtesans, Chōshun and his students also produced a great number of works of ''[[shunga]]'' (erotic paintings).

Miyagawa Chōshun had a number of pupils, including his son [[Miyagawa Shunsui|Shunsui]], Chōki (who may have also been his son), and [[Miyagawa Isshō|Isshō]].

In 1751, a few years before his death, Chōshun was commissioned by an artist of the Kanō school to perform some restoration work at the [[Nikkō Tōshō-gū]]. When Chōshun was not paid for his work, an altercation erupted which ended in the death of the Kanō artist at the hands of Chōshun's son. As a result, Chōshun was banished from Edo for a year.

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
Miyagawa Chosun - Nanshoku 04.jpg|[[Nanshoku]] (male-male) shunga handscroll
Miyagawa Chosun - Nanshoku 03.jpg|[[Nanshoku]] (male-male) shunga handscroll
Ryukyuan Dancer and Musicians by Miyagawa Choshun, c. 1718.jpg|''Ryūkyūan Dancer and Musicians', {{circa|1718}}
MET DP-12232-115.jpg|''Gyoran Kannon'', a [[bijin-ga]] scroll
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* [[Richard Douglas Lane|Lane, Richard]]. (1978).  ''Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|9780192114471}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5246796  OCLC 5246796]

==External links==
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/153737 Bridge of dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art], a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Miyagawa Chōshun (see index)
{{commons category|Miyagawa Choshun}}

{{Ukiyo-e artists}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Miyagawa, Choshun}}
[[Category:1683 births]]
[[Category:1753 deaths]]
[[Category:Ukiyo-e artists]]
[[Category:18th-century Japanese artists]]