Seiu Ito

Ito was born Hajime Ito (伊藤一, Itō Hajime) in Asakusa district and started his education in painting by 1890. His father was a metalworker and he also received training in ivory carving, later sculpture. He adopted the alias Seiu (Sino-Japanese reading of kanji for words 'clear' and 'rain') at age 13.[3] Around 1907, he began working for newspapers.[4]

Ito hired a young art school model named Kise Sahara in 1919. Kise became Ito's second wife after she got pregnant and posed willingly for her husband.[3]

Ito became the target of censors in 1930, which led to draining of his fortunes and he lost his works at the Great Tokyo Air Raid.[4] In 1960, he was awarded by the Japan Artists Association (日本美術家連盟, Nihon Bijutsuka Renmei).[4]

As an artist, Ito was very interested in kabuki and other ways of the Edo period[1] and his book An History of Edo and Tokyo Manners (江戸と東京風俗野史, Edo to Tōkyō Fūzoku Yashi) was published after the Kanto earthquake.[4] His technique for depiction of Edo period tortures was to bind his model in various ways, have the photographs taken, and use them as inspiration for his paintings.[1] A notorious exploit of such kind was binding his pregnant wife Kise and have her suspended upside down for a drawing imitating the ukiyo-e The Lonely House on Adachi Moor in Michinoku Province by Yoshitoshi.[1][5]