Biography

Ukiyo-e artist/Japanese-style painter. In 1837, became a disciple of Kuniyoshi Utagawa, but soon left and studied under Towa Maemura and Tohaku Kano of the Kano school. In 1849, he used the name Noriyuki Toiku, but there would be a period of dark days. From around 1859, he began to depict such works as kyoga (comic pictures) and caricatures. In 1870, he was arrested and imprisoned for creating a caricature. The following year, he changed the first character of his name “kyo” (crazy, humorous) to a homophone of “kyo,” meaning “dawn, enlightenment.” In 1876, he exhibited his nikuhitsu-ga paintings at the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia. He excelled in realism, which he sprinkled with a sense of humor in a wide range of genres, such as bijin-ga (beauty painting), ghost painting, Buddhist painting and caricature.