Utagawa Kuniyoshi

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In this Japanese name, the surname is Utagawa.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

歌川 国芳

Self-portrait from the shunga album Chinpen

shinkeibai, 1839

Born Utagawa Kuniyoshi

1 January 1798
Edo, Musashi Province, Japan

Died 14 April 1861 (aged 63)

Edo

Nationality Japanese

Known for Painter , printmaker, ukiyo-e

artist, artist, illustrator
 Notable "Soma's Kouchi Ura" and
work others

Movement Ukiyo-e

Hawk, woodblock print

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese: 歌川 国芳, [ɯtaɡawa kɯɲiꜜjoɕi]; 1 January
1798[1] – 14 April 1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-
e style of woodblock prints and painting.[2] He was a member of the Utagawa
school.[3]
The range of Kuniyoshi's subjects included many genres: landscapes, beautiful
women, Kabuki actors, cats, and mythical animals. He is known for depictions
of the battles of legendary samurai heroes.[4] His artwork incorporated aspects of
Western representation in landscape painting and caricature.[2]

Life[edit]
Kuniyoshi was born on 1 January 1798, the son of a silk-dyer, Yanagiya
Kichiyemon,[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.

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.[3] 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 warriors and kabuki actors.

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
school (Utagawa-ryū).[3] However, during this time he did produce pictures of
beautiful women ('bijin-ga') 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, 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 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.
 Tiger, woodblock print
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. 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, 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.[6]

Kanama Goro Imakuni, woodblock print (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.
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[edit]
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.[7] Takashi

Murakami credits the pioneering influence of Kuniyoshi affecting his work.[4]

Print series[edit]
 Utagawa Kuniyoshi variation on the theme of The
Mouse Turned into a Maid
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)
 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
See The Kuniyoshi Project[8] for a more extensive list.

Gallery[edit]
Multi-sheet impressions, triptychs[edit]
 

Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, c. 1844

Kajiwara Kagesue, Sasaki Takatsuna, and Hatakeyama Shigetada racing to

cross the Uji River before the second battle of Uji during the Genpei War[9]

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)
Yoko-e, a print in horizontal or "landscape" format[edit]
 

On the shore of the Sumida River

Mt Fuji from the Sumida

Pilgrims in the waterfall

Single sheet format[edit]


Banners for boys' day festival

 

Courtesan in training

Takeda Nobushige from the series 24 Generals of Kai Province

from the series One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Suikoden All
Told

from the series Heroes of Our Country's Suikoden

 

Hanagami Danjo no jo Arakage fighting a giant salamander

Miyamoto Musashi[10] killing a giant lizard

Saito Oniwakamaru, the young Benkei, fights the giant carp at the Bishimon
waterfall

Hatsuhana doing penance under the Tonosawa waterfall

 

Keyamura Rokusuke under the Hikosan Gongen waterfall

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro[11]

 Portrait of Chicasei Goyô (Wu Yong) from Water Margin (1827–1830)

Ukiyo-e of Oda Nobunaga


Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Yoshitsune and Benkei defending themselves in their boat
during a storm created by the ghosts of conquered Taira clan warriors

Minamoto no Tametomo with a gunsen fan

Themes[edit]
Kuniyoshi's work may be parsed thematically, as in this group of images which
feature cats.
 

Cats forming the characters for catfish

Cats suggested as The Fifty-three Stations of
 the Tōkaidō

Four cats in different poses illustrating

Japanese proverbs
Caricatures were among Kuniyoshi's themes.
 

Scribbling on the storehouse wall

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
 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

 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

 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,[12] the Princeton
University Art Museum,[13] the Nasher Museum of Art,[14] the University of
Michigan Museum of Art,[15] the Walters Art Museum,[16] the Portland Art
Museum,[17] the Seattle Art Museum,[18] the Birmingham Museum of Art,
[19]
the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,[20] the Indianapolis Museum of Art,
[21]
the Brooklyn Museum,[22] and the Van Gogh Museum.[23]

See also[edit]

 List of Utagawa school members

 Bakeneko
Notes[edit]

1. ^ Ōkubo, Junichi (1994), "Utagawa Kuniyoshi", Asashi Nihon rekishi

jinbutsu jiten (朝日日本歴史人物事典) (in Japanese), Tokyo, Japan:
Asahi Shimbun Company, ISBN 4023400521, archived from the
original on 2016-10-05
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric et al (2005). "Kuniyoshi"
in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 576., p. 576, at Google Books
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c Nussbaum, "Utagawa-ryū" in p. 1018., p. 1018,
at Google Books
4. ^ Jump up to:a b Lubow, Arthur. "Everything But the Robots: A
Kuniyoshi Retrospective Reveals the Roots of Manga," New York
Magazine. March 7, 2010.
5. ^ Robinson (1961), p. 5
6. ^ Johnson, Ken. "Epics and Erotica From a Grandfather of Anime", New
York Times. April 15, 2010.
7. ^ "Yōshū Chikanobu [obituary]," Miyako Shimbun, No. 8847, October 2,
1912. p. 195.
8. ^ "Kuniyoshi Project".
9. ^ Kitagawa, Hiroshi et al. (1975). The Tale of the Heike, pp. 511-513.
10.^ Nussbaum, "Miyamoto Musashi" in p. 650., p. 650, at Google Books
11.^ Nussbaum, "Kakinomoto no hitomaro" in p. 456., p. 456, at Google
Books
12.^ "Minakuchi, Ishibe, Kusatsu, Otsu, Kyoto". www.metmuseum.org.
Retrieved 2021-02-17.
13.^ "The Monster's Chūshingura (Bakemono Chūshingura 化物忠臣蔵)
(2015-6735 a-c)". artmuseum.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
14.^ "A Warrior on a White Horse". Nasher Museum of Art at Duke
University. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
15.^ "Exchange: Kôso goichidai ryakuzu: Nichiren Walking Barefoot in the
Snow". exchange.umma.umich.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
16.^ "Bando Mitsugoro III (or IV) as Daruma". The Walters Art Museum.
Retrieved 2021-02-17.
17.^ "The Chopping Block Shoals Off the Coast of Buzen
Province". portlandartmuseum.us. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
18.^ "An Otsu-e artist and his painting subjects". art.seattleartmuseum.org.
Retrieved 2021-02-17.
19.^ "You are being redirected..." www.artsbma.org. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
20.^ "(Ichikawa Danjuro VIII) as Teraoke Heiemon - Utagawa
Kuniyoshi". FAMSF Search the Collections. 2015-05-08.
Retrieved 2021-02-17.
 21.^ "Rokuyosai Kuniyoshi jiman; Shakku". Indianapolis Museum of Art
Online Collection. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
22.^ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-02-
17.
23.^ "Hodogaya, from the series The Tōkaidō in Fifty-Three Pairs - Van
Gogh Museum". vangoghmuseum-prod.azurewebsites.net.
Retrieved 2021-02-17.

References[edit]

 Kitagawa, Hiroshi and Bruce T. Tsuchida, ed. (1975). The Tale of the
Heike. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. ISBN 0-86008-128-1 OCLC
164803926
 Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan
Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-
01753-5; 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

Further reading[edit]

 Forbes, Andrew ; Henley, David (2012). Forty-Seven Ronin: Utagawa

Kuniyoshi Edition. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN: B00ADQM8II
 Merlin C. Dailey, David Stansbury, Utagawa Kuniyoshi: An Exhibition of
the Work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi Based on the Raymond A. Bidwell
Collection of Japanese Prints at the Springfield Museum of Fine
Arts (Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, 1980)
 Merlin C. Dailey, The Raymond A. Bidwell Collections of Prints by
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield,
1968) Note: completely different volume from the preceding
 Klompmakers, Inge, “Kuniyoshi’s Tattooed Heroes of the
Suikoden”, Andon, No. 87, 2009, pp. 18–26.
 B. W. Robinson, Kuniyoshi (Victoria and Albert, London, 1961)
 B. W. Robinson, Kuniyoshi: The Warrior Prints (Cornell University, Ithaca,
1982) contains the definitive listing of his prints
 Robert Schaap, Timothy T. Clark, Matthi Forrer, Inagaki Shin'ichi, Heroes
and Ghosts: Japanese Prints By Kuniyoshi 1797-1861 (Hotei, Leiden, 1998)
is now the definitive work on him

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

 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.