Utagawa Kuniyoshi

thumb|right|Hawk, woodblock print

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (, ; 1 January 1798 – 14 April 1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting. He was a member of the Utagawa school.

The range of Kuniyoshi's subjects included many genres: landscapes, women, Kabuki actors, cats, and mythical animals. He is known for depictions of the battles of legendary samurai heroes. His artwork incorporated aspects of Western representation in landscape painting and caricature. originally named Yoshisaburō. Apparently he assisted his father's business as a pattern designer, and some have suggested that this experience influenced his rich use of color and textile patterns in prints. It is said that Kuniyoshi was impressed, at an early age of seven or eight, by ukiyo-e warrior prints, and by pictures of artisans and commoners (as depicted in craftsmen manuals), and it is possible these influenced his own later prints.thumb|left|Painting of the [[arhat Handaka (British Museum)]]

Yoshisaburō proved his drawing talents at age 12, quickly attracting the attention of the famous ukiyo-e print master Utagawa Toyokuni.

thumb|left|Kanama Goro Imakuni, woodblock print ([[National Museum, Warsaw|National Museum, Warsaw)]]

During the decade leading up to the reforms, Kuniyoshi also produced landscape prints (fūkeiga), which were outside the bounds of censorship and catered to the rising popularity of personal travel in late Edo Japan. Notable among these were Famous products of the provinces (Sankai meisan zukushi, c. 1828–30)—where he incorporated Western shading and perspective and pigments—and Famous views of the Eastern capital in the early 1830s, which was certainly influenced by Hokusai's early-1830s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei). Kuniyoshi also produced during this time works of purely natural subject matter, notably of animals, birds and fish that mimicked traditional Japanese and Chinese painting.

thumb|right|Ichikawa Danjuro VIII Greeting the Audience

In the late 1840s, Kuniyoshi began again to illustrate actor prints, this time evading censorship (or simply evoking creativity) through childish, cartoon-like portraits of famous kabuki actors, the most notable being "Scribbling on the storehouse wall" (Nitakaragurakabe no mudagaki). Here he creatively used elementary, childlike script sloppily written in kana under the actor faces. Reflecting his love for felines, Kuniyoshi also began to use cats in the place of humans in kabuki and satirical prints. He is also known during this time to have experimented with wide composition, magnifying visual elements in the image for a dramatic, exaggerated effect (ex. Masakado's daughter the princess Takiyasha, at the old Soma palace).

In 1856 Kuniyoshi suffered from palsy, which caused him much difficulty in moving his limbs. It is said that his works from this point onward were noticeably weaker in the use of line and overall vitality. Before his death in 1861, Kuniyoshi was able to witness the opening of the port city of Yokohama to foreigners, and in 1860 produced two works depicting Westerners in the city (Yokohama-e, ex. View of Honchō and The pleasure quarters, Yokohama). He died at the age of 63 in April 1861 in his home in Genyadana.

Pupils

Kuniyoshi was an excellent teacher and had numerous pupils who continued his branch of the Utagawa school. Among the most notable were Yoshitoshi, Yoshitora, Yoshiiku, Yoshikazu, Yoshitsuya, and Yoshifuji. Typically his students began an apprenticeship in which they worked primarily on musha-e in a style similar to that of their master. As they became established as independent artists, many went on to develop highly innovative styles of their own. His most important student was Yoshitoshi, who is now regarded as the "last master" of the Japanese woodblock print.

Among those influenced by Kuniyoshi was Toyohara Chikanobu. Takashi Murakami credits the pioneering influence of Kuniyoshi affecting his work. for a more extensive list.

Gallery

Multi-sheet impressions, triptychs

File:Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.jpg|Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, c. 1844

File:Kagesue, Takatsuna and Shigetada crossing the Uji river.jpg|Kajiwara Kagesue, Sasaki Takatsuna, and Hatakeyama Shigetada racing to cross the Uji River before the second battle of Uji during the Genpei War

File:La expedición de Xu Fu, por Utagawa Kuniyoshi.jpg|The First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty in China, in Search of the Magical Herbs of Longevity, Had Ten Great Ships Built, and the Court Magician Xu Fu with Five Hundred Boys and Girls, Carrying Treasure, Food Supplies, and Equipment, Set Out for Mount Penglai (c. 1843)

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Yoko-e, a print in horizontal or "landscape" format

File:Kuniyoshi Utagawa, At the shore of the Sumida river.jpg|On the shore of the Sumida River

File:Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Mt fuji from Sumida.jpg|Mt Fuji from the Sumida

Image:Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Pilgrims in the waterfall.jpg|Pilgrims in the waterfall

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Single sheet format

File:Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Banners for the boys festival.jpg|Banners for boys' day festival

File:Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Courtesan in training.jpg|Courtesan in training

File:KaiGeneral.jpg|Takeda Nobushige from the series 24 Generals of Kai Province

Image:Suikoden.jpg|from the series One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Suikoden All Told

File:Eight Hundred Heroes of Our Country s Suikoden 12.jpg|from the series Heroes of Our Country's Suikoden

Image:Hanagami Danjo no jo Arakage fighting a giant salamander.jpg|Hanagami Danjo no jo Arakage fighting a giant salamander

File:Miyamoto Musashi killing a giant nue.jpg|Miyamoto Musashi killing a giant lizard

Image:Saito Oniwakamaru.jpg|Saito Oniwakamaru, the young Benkei, fights the giant carp at the Bishimon waterfall

Image:Hatsuhana doing penance under the Tonosawa waterfall.jpg|Hatsuhana doing penance under the Tonosawa waterfall

Image:Keyamura Rokusuke under the Hikosan Gongen waterfall.jpg|Keyamura Rokusuke under the Hikosan Gongen waterfall

File:Kakinomoto no hitomaro.jpg|Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

File:Tsuzoku Suikoden Goketsu Hyakuhachi-nin no Hitori (108 Heroes of 'The Water Margin' in Popular Translation) (BM 1906,1220,0.1311).jpg|Portrait of Chicasei Goyô (Wu Yong) from Water Margin (1827–1830)

File:Oda-Nobunaga-by-Utagawa-Kuniyoshi.png|Ukiyo-e of Oda Nobunaga

File:Yoshitsune aangevallen door Taira geesten-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1979-177.jpeg|Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Yoshitsune and Benkei defending themselves in their boat during a storm created by the ghosts of conquered Taira clan warriors

File:Minamoto-no-Tametomo-by-Kuniyoshi-Utagawa.png|Minamoto no Tametomo with a gunsen fan

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Themes

Kuniyoshi's work may be parsed thematically, as in this group of images which feature cats.

File:Cats_forming_the_caracters_for_catfish.jpg|Cats forming the characters for catfish

File:Kuniyoshi Utagawa, For cats in different poses.jpg|Four cats in different poses illustrating Japanese proverbs

File:Cats_suggested_as_the_fifty-three_stations_of_the_Tokaido.jpg|Cats suggested as The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō

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Caricatures were among Kuniyoshi's themes.

File:Scrbbling on the storehouse wall.jpg|Scribbling on the storehouse wall

File:At first glance he looks very fiarce, but he s really a nice person.jpg|At first glance he looks very fierce, but he is actually a kind person

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The Monster's Chūshingura (Bakemono Chūshingura), ca. 1836, Princeton University Art Museum

File:Kuniyoshi, Utagawa, The Monster's Chūshingura (Bakemono Chūshingura), ca. 1836 (a).jpg|Acts 9-11 of the Kanadehon Chūshingura with act nine at top right, act ten at bottom right, act eleven, scene 1, at top left, act eleven, scene 2 at bottom left

File:Kuniyoshi, Utagawa, The Monster's Chūshingura (Bakemono Chūshingura), ca. 1836 (b).jpg|Acts 5-8 of the Kanadehon Chūshingura with act five at top right, act six at bottom right, act seven at top left, act eight at bottom left

File:Kuniyoshi, Utagawa, The Monster's Chūshingura (Bakemono Chūshingura), ca. 1836 (c).jpg|Acts 1-4 of the Kanadehon Chūshingura with act one at top right, act two at bottom right, act three at top left, act four at bottom left

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Kuniyoshi's work is held in the permanent collections of many museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Nasher Museum of Art, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Van Gogh Museum.

Notes

References

Kitagawa, Hiroshi and Bruce T. Tsuchida, ed. (1975). The Tale of the Heike. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. OCLC 164803926
Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ; OCLC 48943301
Utagawa, Kuniyoshi; Robert A Rorex and Victoria Rovine. (1997). Samurai Stories: Woodblock Prints of Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi, from a Private Collection. Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Museum of Art. OCLC 37678997

External links

Utagawa Kuniyoshi's Cats
Kuniyoshi Project
Utagawa Kuniyoshi Online
Ukiyo-e Caricatures 1842-1905 Database of the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Vienna. Over 400 prints of Kuniyoshi are included.
Short biography at Artelino
Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters Gallery exhibition at New York's Japan Society featuring Kuniyoshi prints.
Woodblock Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Pupils

Gallery

Multi-sheet impressions, triptychs

Yoko-e, a print in horizontal or "landscape" format

Single sheet format

Themes

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links