c. 1660–1673) was a Japanese woodblock print artist and mentor to Hishikawa Moronobu, who is generally considered to have founded the genre known as ukiyo-e. As no signed works by the Kanbun Master are known to survive (or to have ever been made), he remains anonymous and known only by the pseudonym assigned him by scholar Richard Lane on account of his having flourished during the Kanbun era (1661–1673) on the Japanese Imperial calendar.
In fact, scholars are not even sure whether the works attributed to the Kanbun Master were even by a single hand, or if they were created by a greater number of anonymous artists.
Roughly fifty illustrated books are attributed to the Kanbun Master, including a number of shunga works, novels, guidebooks, poetry anthologies, jōruri plays, and courtesan critiques (yūjo hyōbanki).
The majority of these works were in the shunga (erotic pictures) mode, and all except the paintings were done in monochrome black ink, with a minimum of color added by hand.
"[1] His chief influence was the genre painting popular at the time, consisting primarily of scenes of daily activities in Japan's major cities, particularly Kyoto and Edo.