Utagawa Kunisada - The garden bathtub - Google Art Project

was a Japanese

ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock printing, woodblock prints and Nikuhitsu-ga, paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes ...

artist 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, t ...

. He was originally from Aizu in Iwashiro Province and first worked in a dye shop after arriving in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

(modern Tokyo). It was there that he was noticed by

Utagawa Toyokuni , also often referred to as Toyokuni I, to distinguish him from the Utagawa school, members of his school who took over his ''gō'' (art-name) after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his kabuki actor prints. He was ...

, to whom he became apprenticed. Kunimasa is especially known for his '' yakusha-e'' portrait prints of

kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

actors, and for his '' bijin-ga'' pictures of beautiful women. Richard Lane described his style as striving to "combine the intensity of

Sharaku was a Japanese ukiyo-e print designer, known for his portraits of kabuki actors. Neither his true name nor the dates of his birth or death are known. His active career as a woodblock artist spanned ten months; his prolific work met disapprova ...

with the decorative pageantry of his master Toyokuni". Lane, Richard (1978). ''Images of the Floating World''. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky. p. 152. Those who make such comparison often say he failed to achieve the level of Sharaku's intensity.

Notes

References

* Lane, Richard. (1978). ''Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
OCLC 5246796
*Morse, Anne Nishimura (1985). "Utagawa Kunimasa". Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd.

External links

British Museum: Utagawa Kunimasa, The actor Ichikawa Ebizō in a shibaraku role, a colour woodblock printArt site
1773 births 1810 deaths Ukiyo-e artists Utagawa school {{printmaker-stub