Utagawa Kuniyoshi ( ja, 歌川国芳, ; January 1, 1798 – April 14, 1861) was one of the last great masters of the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

ese

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ta ...

style of woodblock prints and painting.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al'' (2005). "Kuniyoshi" in He was a member of the

Utagawa school The Utagawa school () was one of the main schools of ukiyo-e, founded by Utagawa Toyoharu. It was the largest ukiyo-e school of its period. The main styles were bijin-ga (beautiful women) and uki-e (perspective picture). His pupil, Toyokuni I, to ...

.Nussbaum, "Utagawa-ryū" in The range of Kuniyoshi's subjects included many genres: landscapes, beautiful women,

Kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance- drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought ...

actors, cats, and mythical animals. He is known for depictions of the battles of legendary

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ...

heroes.Lubow, Arthur
"Everything But the Robots: A Kuniyoshi Retrospective Reveals the Roots of Manga,"
''New York Magazine.'' March 7, 2010. His artwork incorporated aspects of Western representation in

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compo ...

and

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

Life

Kuniyoshi was born on January 1, 1798, the son of a silk-dyer, Yanagiya Kichiyemon,Robinson (1961), p. 5 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. Yoshisaburō proved his drawing talents at age 12, quickly attracting the attention of the famous ukiyo-e print master

Utagawa Toyokuni Utagawa Toyokuni ( ja, 歌川豊国; 1769 in Edo – 24 February 1825 in Edo), also often referred to as Toyokuni I, to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his ''gō'' (art-name) after he died, was a great mast ...

. He was officially admitted to Toyokuni's studio in 1811, and became one of his chief pupils. He remained an apprentice until 1814, at which time he was given the name "Kuniyoshi" and set out as an independent artist. During this year he produced his first published work, the illustrations for the ''kusazōshi'' ''gōkan'' ''Gobuji Chūshingura'', a parody of the original Chūshingura story. Between 1815 and 1817 he created a number of book illustrations for '' yomihon'', '' kokkeibon'', ''gōkan'' and ''hanashibon'', and printed his stand-alone full color prints of "

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance- drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought ...

" actors and warriors. Despite his promising debut, the young Kuniyoshi failed to produce many works between 1818 and 1827, probably due to a lack of commissions from publishers, and the competition of other artists within the

(Utagawa-''ryū''). However, during this time he did produce pictures of beautiful women ('

bijin-ga is a generic term for pictures of beautiful women () in Japanese art, especially in woodblock printing of the ukiyo-e genre. Definition defines as a picture that simply "emphasizes the beauty of women", and the ''Shincho Encyclopedia of ...

') and experimented with large textile patterns and light-and-shadow effects found in Western art, although his attempts showed more imitation than real understanding of these principles. His economic situation turned desperate at one point when he was forced to sell used tatami mats. A chance encounter with his prosperous fellow pupil

Kunisada Utagawa Kunisada ( ja, 歌川国貞; 1786 – 12 January 1865), also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III (, ), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. He is considered the most popular, prolific and commercially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodbloc ...

, to whom he felt that he was superior in artistic talent, led him to redouble his efforts (but did not create any lingering ill-feeling between the two, who later collaborated on a number of series). During the 1820s, Kuniyoshi produced a number of heroic triptychs that show the first signs of an individual style. In 1827 he received his first major commission for the series, ''One hundred and eight heroes of the popular Suikoden all told'' (''Tsūzoku Suikoden gōketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori''), based on the incredibly popular Chinese tale, the '' Shuihu Zhuan''. In this series Kuniyoshi illustrated individual heroes on single-sheets, drawing tattoos on his heroes, a novelty which soon influenced

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

fashion. The Suikoden series became extremely popular in Edo, and the demand for Kuniyoshi's warrior prints increased, gaining him entrance into the major ukiyo-e and literary circles. Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Tiger

He continued to produce warrior prints, drawing much of his subjects from war tales such as ''Tale of the Heike'' ('' Heike monogatari'') and ''The rise and fall of the Minamoto and the Taira'' ('' Genpei Seisuiki''). His warrior prints were unique in that they depicted legendary popular figures with an added stress on dreams, ghostly apparitions, omens, and superhuman feats. This subject matter is instilled in his works ''The ghost of Taira no Tomomori at Daimotsu bay'' (''Taira Tomomori borei no zu'') and the 1839 triptych ''The Gōjō bridge'' (''Gōjō no bashi no zu''), where he manages to invoke an effective sense of action intensity in his depiction of the combat between Yoshitsune and

Benkei , popularly known as simply Benkei, was a Japanese warrior monk ('' sōhei'') who lived in the latter years of the Heian Period (794–1185) .html" ;"title="/sup>">/sup>. Benkei led a varied life, first becoming a monk, then a mountain ascetic ...

. These new thematic styles satisfied the public's interest in the ghastly, exciting, and bizarre that was growing during the time. The Tenpō Reforms of 1841–1843 aimed to alleviate economic crisis by controlling public displays of luxury and wealth, and the illustration of courtesans and actors in ''ukiyō-e'' was officially banned at that time. This may have had some influence on Kuniyoshi's production of caricature prints or comic pictures (''giga''), which were used to disguise actual actors and courtesans. Many of these symbolically and humorously criticized the shogunate (such as the 1843 design showing Minamoto no Yorimitsu asleep, haunted by the Earth Spider and his demons) and became popular among the politically dissatisfied public. Timothy Clark, curator of Japanese art at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, asserts that the repressive conventions of the day produced unintended consequences. The government-created limitations became a kind of artistic challenge which actually encouraged Kuniyoshi's creative resourcefulness by forcing him to find ways to veil criticism of the shogunate allegorically. Utagawa Kuniyoshi Kanama Goro Immakuni

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 The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterize ...

. 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 , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock print series '' Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the iconic print ''The Great W ...

'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. 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 The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters ( kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most ...

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 is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

to foreigners, and in 1860 produced two works depicting Westerners in the city (

Yokohama-e are Japanese woodblock prints depicting non-East Asian foreigners and scenes in the port city of Yokohama. The port of Yokohama was opened to foreigners in 1859, and ukiyo-e artists, primarily of the Utagawa school, produced more than 800 differ ...

, 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 was a designer of '' ukiyo-e'' Japanese woodblock prints and an illustrator of books and newspapers who was active from about 1850 to about 1880. He was born in Edo (modern Tokyo), but neither his date of birth nor date of death is known. Howeve ...

, Yoshiiku, Yoshikazu, Yoshitsuya, and Yoshifuji. Typically his students began an apprenticeship in which they worked primarily on

musha-e Musha-e () is a type a Japanese art that was developed in the late 18th century. It is a genre of the ukiyo-e woodblock printing technique, and represents images of warriors and samurai from Japanese history and mythology. History Edo Period ...

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 is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts as well as co ae ...

credits the pioneering influence of Kuniyoshi affecting his work.

Print series

A cat dressed as a woman tapping the head of an octopus

Here is a partial list of his print series, with dates: * ''Illustrated Abridged Biography of the Founder'' (c. 1831) * ''Famous Views of the Eastern Capital'' (c. 1834) * ''Heroes of Our Country's Suikoden'' (c. 1836) * ''Stories of Wise and Virtuous Women'' (c. 1841-1842) * ''Fifty-Three Parallels for the Tōkaidō'' (1843–1845) (with Hiroshige and

Toyokuni III Utagawa Kunisada ( ja, 歌川国貞; 1786 – 12 January 1865), also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III (, ), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. He is considered the most popular, prolific and commercially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodbloc ...

) * ''Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety'' (1843–1846) * ''Mirror of the Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety'' (1844–1846) * ''Six Crystal Rivers'' (1847–1848) * ''Fidelity in Revenge'' (c. 1848) * ''Twenty-Four Chinese Paragons of Filial Piety'' (c. 1848) * ''Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaido'' (1852) * ''Portraits of Samurai of True Loyalty'' (1852) * '' 24 Generals of Kai Province'' (1853) * Half-length portrait of Goshaku Somegoro * ''

Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre ''Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre'' or ''Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Spectre Invoked by Princess Takiyasha'' ( ja, 相馬の古内裏妖怪がしゃどくろと戦う大宅太郎光圀) is an ukiyo-e woodblock triptych by Japan ...

'' See The Kuniyoshi Project for a more extensive list.

Gallery

Multi-sheet impressions, triptychs

File:Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre.jpg, ''

'', 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 The was a national civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yoritomo, who appointed himse ...

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 Pengla'' (c. 1843)

''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''

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 was a samurai of Japan's Sengoku period, and younger brother of Takeda Shingen. He was known as one of the " Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen". Takeda Nobushige held the favor of their father, and was meant to inherit the Takeda lands, w ...

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

, 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 Image:Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Portrait of Chicasei Goyô (Wu Yong) (1827–1830).jpg, Portrait of Chicasei Goyô (Wu Yong) from

Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''. The story, which is ...

(1827–1830) File:Oda-Nobunaga-by-Utagawa-Kuniyoshi.png,

Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ta ...

of Oda Nobunaga File:Yoshitsune aangevallen door Taira geesten-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1979-177.jpeg, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Yoshitsune and

defending themselves in their boat during a storm created by the ghosts of conquered

Taira clan The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divide ...

warriors File:Minamoto-no-Tametomo-by-Kuniyoshi-Utagawa.png,

Minamoto no Tametomo , also known as , was a samurai who fought in the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156. He was the son of Minamoto no Tameyoshi, and brother to Yukiie and Yoshitomo. Tametomo is known in the epic chronicles as a powerful archer and it is said that he on ...

with a gunsen fan

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'' 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 ''The Monster's Chūshingura (Bakemono Chūshingura)'', ca. 1836,

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works ...

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 Kuniyoshi's work is held in the permanent collections of many museums worldwide, including the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Nasher Museum of Art, the

University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...

, the

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

, the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum bec ...

, the Seattle Art Museum, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

, and the Van Gogh Museum.

Notes

References

* Kitagawa, Hiroshi and Burce T. Tsuchida, ed. (1975). ''The Tale of the Heike.'' Tokyo:

University of Tokyo Press The is a university press affiliated with the University of Tokyo in Japan. It was founded in 1951, following the post-World War II reorganization of the university. Honors * Japan Foundation: Special Prize, 1990. Location The headquarters o ...

.
OCLC 164803926
* Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). ''Japan Encyclopedia.'' Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

.
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 ProjectUkiyo-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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Utagawa, Kuniyoshi 1798 births 1861 deaths Japanese portrait painters Ukiyo-e artists Kuniyoshi 19th-century Japanese painters