was a Japanese painter and printmaker of the Torii school

Torii school

This article is about a school of ukiyo-e art; for the sculpture style, see Tori style. For the Torii samurai clan, see Torii family.The Torii school was a school of ukiyo-e painting and printing founded in Edo...

, in the genre of ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

. Like the other Torii artists, his primary focus was on Kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 billboards, advertisements, actor prints

Yakusha-e

Yakusha-e , often referred to as "actor prints" in English, are Japanese woodblock prints or, rarely, paintings, of kabuki actors, particularly those done in the ukiyo-e style popular through the Edo period and into the beginnings of the 20th century...

, and other related material. Many scholars believe Kiyomasu to have been the younger brother or son of Torii Kiyonobu I

Torii Kiyonobu I

was a Japanese painter and printmaker in the ukiyo-e style, who is renowned for his work on Kabuki signboards and related materials. Along with his father Torii Kiyomoto, he is said to have been one of the founders of the Torii school of painting....

, one of the founders of the school, or to have been an alternate art-name

Art-name

An art-name is a pseudonym, or penname, used by an East Asian artist, which they sometimes change. The word and the idea to use a pseudonym originated from China, then became popular in other East Asian countries ....

 (gō) for the same man.

In the 1710s, prints signed with Kiyomasu's name far outnumber those with the signature of Kiyonobu. If the two were distinct artists, this could indicate that the elder artist, the head of the school, devoted more time to the kabuki billboards and other works which were more the official province of the workshop, while the younger was left to do prints. On the other hand, even if the two were the same person, this could simply be explained by the use of different names on different types of work.

Though his style is said to be somewhat more graceful than Kiyonobu's, they are difficult to tell apart, as are most works by other Torii artists. That said, there are certain stylistic elements that do stand out as differences between the two artists. While Kiyonobu's work was based largely on that of Hishikawa Moronobu

Hishikawa Moronobu

was a Japanese painter and printmaker known for his advancement of the ukiyo-e woodcut style starting in the 1670s.-Early life and training:Moronobu was the son of a well-respected dyer and a gold and silver-thread embroiderer in the village of Hodamura, Awa Province, near Edo Bay. After moving to...

, and was very masculine in nature, with sharp, bold lines, Kiyomasu's works, while very similar at first glance, are in fact softer and more graceful; they are said to show a "lack of seriousness of intent." This shift is attributed to an emulation of the styles of Moronobu's chief competitor, Sugimura Jihei

Sugimura Jihei

was a Japanese ukiyo-e printmaker who flourished from approximately 1681 to 1703. A follower of Hishikawa Moronobu, Sugimura illustrated at least 70 books, and created a number of large size prints along with many of the more standard sizes and formats....

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