Miyagawa Isshō

{{Short description|Japanese painter}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Miyagawa Isshō

| honorific_suffix =

| native_name = 宮川 一笑

| native_name_lang = ja

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| birth_date = 1689

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| death_date = {{Death date|1780|01|20}} (aged 90)

| death_place = Nii-jima

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| style = Ukiyo-e

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}}

{{family name hatnote|Miyagawa|lang=Japanese}}

Miyagawa Isshō ({{lang|ja|宮川 一笑}}, 1689 – 20 January 1780) was a Japanese painter in the ukiyo-e style, primarily depicting kabuki actors, geisha, sumo wrestlers, and other elements of everyday urban culture. He used several other names: Fujiwara Andō ({{lang|ja|藤原 安道}}), Kohensai ({{lang|ja|湖辺斎}}) and others; his common name was Kiheiji ({{lang|ja|喜平治}}).{{sfn|British Museum}}

The majority of Isshō's works that survive come from the Kyōhō era (1716–1736). He was a pupil of Miyagawa Chōshun (1682–1752),{{sfn|Japan Ukiyo-e Association|1982|p=54}} who, in turn, was influenced by the works of Hishikawa Moronobu. Like many ukiyo-e artists, Isshō also produced a number of shunga, paintings of erotic scenes.

Isshō was banished from Edo in 1751, along with his master Chōshun, to the island of Niijima off the Izu Peninsula for a year.{{sfn|British Museum}} This came after a dispute arose over the payment for a painting commission in Nikkō. A Kanō school artist commissioned Chōshun to paint some of the walls of the Nikkō Tōshō-gū but refused or was unable to pay. In the ensuing confrontation, the Kanō artist and two others were killed by Isshō and Chōshun's son.{{sfn|Japan Ukiyo-e Association|1982|p=54}} Isshō was never pardoned and died on 20 January 1780.{{sfn|Japan Ukiyo-e Association|1982|p=54}}{{sfn|British Museum}}