Sugimura Jihē

"The Daoist sage Kume" (Kume no sennin), an ukiyo-e print from the late 17th century, attributed to Sugimura Jihei.

was a Japanese ukiyo-e printmaker who flourished from approximately 1681 to 1703.

Confusion around attributions According to art historian and ukiyo-e collector Richard Lane, Sugimura should be as an “indirect pupil” of Hishikawa Moronobu. Much of Sugimura's work was once attributed to fellow followers of Moronobu, or to Moronobu himself. In the 1920s, however, unsigned prints were discovered to have hidden signatures of Sugimura's incorporated in the drawing of the clothing folds.

Works Sugimura illustrated at least 70 books, and created a number of large size prints along with many of the more standard sizes and formats. Judging from his extant works, it appears that Sugimura specialized in shunga, or erotic prints. Shunga prints make up two-thirds of his work. Sugimura's work is characterized by sensual charm and soft, hand-colored, watercolor renderings in sumizuri-e. His work, Kashiwagi to Onna San no Miya ("Kashiwagi and the Third Princess"), is evocative of The Tale of Genji’s “Wakana jo” chapter.