Hishikawa Morohira (1675 - 1725). Hishikawa Morohira, also known as Hishikawa Moronobu II, was a prominent Japanese artist and printmaker, active during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was the son of Hishikawa Moronobu, who is considered one of the founders of the ukiyo-e genre, a style of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings that focused on the floating world of everyday life, entertainment, and pleasure. Hishikawa Morohira continued his father's legacy, creating ukiyo-e prints and paintings that depicted beautiful women, actors, and scenes from daily life. His work is characterized by its elegance, refined composition, and attention to detail. Morohira is particularly known for his contributions to the development of the benizuri-e technique, a method of printing that used limited colors, typically pink and green, to create more sophisticated and nuanced images. This technique allowed artists to achieve a greater degree of realism and depth in their prints, and it was an important precursor to the full-color nishiki-e prints that would become popular later in the 18th century. While Hishikawa Morohira's career was relatively short, his work had a significant impact on the development of the ukiyo-e genre, and his innovations in printing techniques helped pave the way for future generations of Japanese artists. His prints and paintings remain highly regarded for their beauty, craftsmanship, and historical significance.