Ippitsusai Bunchō (, ) was a Japanese

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 ...

artist, best known for his ''

yakusha-e ''Yakusha-e'' (役者絵), often referred to as "actor prints" in English, are Japanese woodblock prints or, rarely, paintings, of kabuki actors, particularly those done in the ''ukiyo-e'' style popular through the Edo period (1603–1867) and i ...

'' actor prints in narrow ''

hosoban Woodblock printing in Japan (, ''mokuhanga'') is a technique best known for its use in the ''ukiyo-e'' artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (160 ...

'' dimensions. Bunchō and

Katsukawa Shunshō Shunshō Katsukawa ( ja, 勝川春章; 1726 – 19 January 1793) was a Japanese painter and printmaker in the ''ukiyo-e'' style, and the leading artist of the Katsukawa school. Shunshō studied under Miyagawa Shunsui, son and student of M ...

are credited with having developed

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 ...

actor portraiture focuses on producing likenesses of the subjects, rather than stereotyped faces. Little is known about Bunchō's life. His birth surname was Mori, and he is believed to have studied painting under Ishikawa Yukimoto of the

Kanō school The is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many d ...

. The earliest known works attributed to Bunchō are the illustrations to Hachimonji Jishō II's ''Eiga asobi nidai otoko'' (1755). Between 1766 and 1774 he made a large number of actor prints in the narrow vertical ''hosoban'' dimensions. In 1770 he produced the three-volume ''Ehon butai ōgi'' (, "Picture-book of Stage Fans") with

, which depicts the leading

actors of the day on ''ōgi''

hand fan A handheld fan, or simply hand fan, is any broad, flat surface that is waved back-and-forth to create an airflow. Generally, purpose-made handheld fans are folding fans, which are shaped like a sector of a circle and made of a thin material (suc ...

s; Bunchō handled the ''

onnagata (also ) are male actors who play female roles in kabuki theatre. History The modern all-male kabuki was originally known as ("male kabuki") to distinguish it from earlier forms. In the early 17th century, shortly after the emergence of the g ...

''—male actors who portray female characters. It was popular and went through multiple printings. From 1769 he also made ''

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 W ...

'' prints of female beauties that show the influence of

Suzuki Harunobu Suzuki Harunobu ( ja, 鈴木春信; ) was a Japanese designer of woodblock print art in the style. He was an innovator, the first to produce full-color prints () in 1765, rendering obsolete the former modes of two- and three-color prints. Haru ...

. These became his major subject, and in the

An'ei was a after ''Meiwa'' and before ''Tenmei.'' This period spanned the years November 1772 through March 1781. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1772 : The era name was changed to ''An'ei'' (meaning "peaceful eternity") to mark t ...

era (1772–81) no actor prints of his are known. Bunchō's last known work was an '' e-goyomi'' picture calendar from 1790. He had few students, one of whom was Kishi Bunshō (1754–96). Acteur Matsumoto Koshiro III in de rol van Soga no Goro-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1956-703.jpeg, Matsumoto Koshiro III as Soga no Goro Acteur Matsumoto Koshiro III in de vrouwenrol Asagao-Rijksmuseum RP-P-1956-701.jpeg, Matsumoto Koshiro as Asagao Actor and Courtesan Parodying the Armor-Pulling Scene from the Story of the Soga Brothers LACMA M.2006.136.300.jpg, Actor and Courtesan Parodying the Armor-Pulling Scene from the Story of the Soga Brothers Brooklyn Museum - An Actor of the Ichikawa School about to Draw His Sword - Ippitsusai Buncho.jpg, An Actor of the Ichikawa School about to Draw His Sword Brooklyn Museum - The Toothbrush Shop Yanagi-ya - Ippitsusai Buncho.jpg, The Toothbrush Shop Yanagi-ya Ichimura Uzaemon IX and Otani Hiroji III (1768).jpg, Ichimura Uzaemon IX and Otani Hiroji III Ichimura Uzaemon X (1770).jpg, Ichimura Uzaemon X Ippitsusai Buncho - Courtesan with a Dog.jpg, Courtesan with a Dog Ippitsusai Buncho ukiyo-e woodblock print.jpg,

References

Works cited

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External links

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Ippitsusai Bunchō
at ukiyo-e.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Buncho 1755 births 1790 deaths Ukiyo-e artists