Hiranoya Shinzō (平野屋新蔵) (publisher )

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Biography:

Edo/Tokyo print publisher from 2/1861 to ca. 1869 took over the small publisher Nishinomiya Shinkichi's business (Marks 114). This Hiranoya Shinzō published works by Hiroshige II, Hiroshige III, Kuniaki II, Kunichika, Kunihisa, Kunihisa II, Toyokuni III, Yoshiiku, Yoshikazu and Yoshitora.

Artists in the Lyon Collection published by this house include Toyokuni III and Hiroshige II. We have highlighted their names in bold type.

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"No publications by Nishimuraya Shinkichi are known and the only record of him is that he joined the Picture Book and Print Publishers Guild (Jihan toiya) in the eleventh month of 1857.

Hiranoya's earliest productions are actor prints by Kunisada, the leading artist and grand seigneur of the Utagawa school at that time. During the first half of the less than ten years that Hiranoya issued prints, he managed to publish some of the best and most remarkable series by Kunisada, all in high-quality deluxe editions."

Quoted from: Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks 1680-1900 by Andreas Marks, p. 308.

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Carvers that worked for this house include Hori Take in 1861, Hori Masa and Hori Ōta Tashichi in 1863 and Hori Uta in 1864. Shimizu Ryūzō carved Yoshitora prints in 1862. Hori Chō in 1867.