Little is known of Harunobu's early life; his birthplace and birthdate are unknown, but it is believed he grew up in Kyoto. It is said he was 46 at his death in 1770. Unlike most artists, Harunobu used his real name rather than an artist name. He was from a
samurai family, and had an ancestor who was a retainer of
Tokugawa Ieyasu in
Mikawa Province; this Suzuki accompanied Ieyasu to Edo when the latter had his capital built there. Harunobu's grandfather Shigemitsu and father Shigekazu were stripped of their status when they were found to be involved in financing of gambling and other activities; they were exiled from Edo and relocated to Kyoto. At some point, Harunobu became a student of the master
Nishikawa Sukenobu. Harunobu began his career in the style of the
Torii school, creating many works which, while skillful, were not innovative and did not stand out. It was only through his involvement with a group of
literati samurai that Harunobu tackled new formats and styles. In 1764, as a result of his social connections, he was chosen to aid these samurai in their amateur efforts to create . Calendars prints of this sort from prior to that year are not unknown but are quite rare, and it is known that Harunobu was close acquaintances or friends with many of the prominent artists and scholars of the period, as well as with several friends of the . Harunobu's calendars, which incorporated the calculations of the lunar calendar into their images, would be exchanged at Edo gatherings and parties. These calendar prints would be the very first (brocade prints). As a result of the wealth and connoisseurship of his samurai patrons, Harunobu exclusively created these prints using the best materials available. Harunobu experimented with better woods for the woodblocks, using
cherry wood instead of
catalpa, and used not only more expensive colors, but also a thicker application of the colors, in order to achieve a more opaque effect. The most important of Harunobu's innovations in the creation of was the use of multiple separate wood blocks in the creation of a single image, an expense afforded through the wealth of his clients. Just 20 years previously, the invention of had made it possible to print in three or four colors; Harunobu applied this new technique to prints using up to ten different colors on a single sheet of paper. The new technique depended on using notches and wedges to hold the paper in place and keep the successive color printings in register. Harunobu was the first artist to consistently use more than three colors in each print. , unlike their predecessors, were full-color images. As the technique was first used in a calendar, the year of their origin can be traced precisely to 1765. In the late 1760s, Harunobu thus became one of the primary producers of images of (pictures of beautiful women), actors of Edo and related subjects for the Edo print connoisseur market; however, he did not produce prints of
kabuki actors, reported to have said, "Why should I paint pictures of such trash as Kabuki actors". In a few special cases, notably his famous set of eight prints entitled (Eight Parlor Views), the patron's name appears on the print along with, or in place of, Harunobu's own. The presence of a patron's name or seal, and especially the omission of that of the artist, was another novel development in of this time. Between 1765 and 1770, Harunobu created over twenty
illustrated books and over one thousand color prints, along with a number of paintings. He came to be regarded as the master of during these last years of his life, and was widely imitated until, a number of years after his death, his style was eclipsed by that of new artists, including
Katsukawa Shunshō and
Torii Kiyonaga. ==Style==