Torii Kiyosada

Torii Kiyosada 鳥居清貞 (1844-1901)

BIOGRAPHY

Sources: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists: Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints, Lacquer, Laurance P. Roberts, Weatherhill, 1976, p. 183 and "Enduring Alliance: The Torii Line of Ukiyo-e Artists and Their Work for the Kabuki Theater," Money L. Hickman appearing in Fenway Court1992, Trustees of the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, 1993.

Torii Kiyosada was the eldest son of Torii Kiyomitsu II (1787-1868) and became the sixth generation in the Torii line upon his father's death. He was a pupil of Torii Kiyomine (1787–1869) and Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1862). Kiyosada was closely connected with the Kabuki world as the manager of the Hisamatsu-za, one of the main Tokyo kabuki theaters.

His name was originally Watanabe 渡辺, then Saitō 斎藤. Upon his father's death, he took the name Kiyomitsu 清満 III. Other names associated with the artist are Chōhachi 鳥居長八 and Matsujirō 松次郎. His only known gō (artist name) is Kiyosada 清貞.

His son was Torii Kiyotada VII (1875-1941) with whom he co-designed a series of prints titled The Kabuki Eighteen (Kabuki jūhachiban) issued 1895-1896.