Kobayashi Kiyochika | |
|---|---|
小林清親 | |
 Kobayashi circa 1873 | |
| Born | Kobayashi Katsunosuke 10 September 1847 Edo, Japan |
| Died | 28 November 1915 (aged 68) Tokyo, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Movement | ukiyo-e |
Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林 清親, 10 September 1847 – 28 November 1915) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, best known for his colour woodblock prints and newspaper illustrations. His work documents the rapid modernization and Westernization Japan underwent during the Meiji period (1868–1912) and employs a sense of light and shade called kōsen-ga inspired by Western art techniques. His work first found an audience in the 1870s with prints of red-brick buildings and trains that had proliferated after the Meiji Restoration; his prints of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 were also popular. Woodblock printing fell out of favour during this period, and many collectors[who?] consider Kobayashi's work the last significant example of ukiyo-e.