What is the name of the earliest known ukiyo-e artist?

Hishikawa Moronobu is generally identified as the earliest known ukiyo-e artist by name. Active in the late seventeenth century, he helped establish ukiyo-e as a recognizable style of paintings and popular woodblock-printed books.

Moronobu was born in 1618 and died in 1694. He came from a family connected with textile decoration and was trained in traditions that included the Tosa and Kanō schools before developing a bold style suited to the commercial art market of Edo. His subjects included courtesans, beautiful women, entertainers, street life, and scenes from the pleasure districts.

His importance is both artistic and historical: earlier popular images and anonymous printmakers existed, but Moronobu is among the first ukiyo-e creators whose name and body of work can be securely discussed. Suzuki Harunobu belongs to a later generation and is famous for pioneering full-color nishiki-e prints in the 1760s.