The Courtesan Kashiwagi and the Kamuro Wakano - Japanese Woodblock Print by Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni Iii)

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The Courtesan Kashiwagi and the Kamuro Wakano - Japanese Woodblock Print

Original Toyokuni III/Kunisada (Japanese, 1786 - 1864) Japanese Woodblock … Read more The Courtesan Kashiwagi and the Kamuro Wakano - Japanese Woodblock Print

Original Toyokuni III/Kunisada (Japanese, 1786 - 1864) Japanese Woodblock Print
"The Courtesan Kashiwagi and the Kamuro Wakano and Chiyono from the Kadoebi House on Kyo Street," circa 1820 - 1830.

Wonderful portrait of the courtesan Kashiwagi of the Kadoebi House on Kyo Street, standing just outside the entrance gate of the establishment. She wears a fantastic black outer kimono patterned with a three-dimensional dragon, red flames, and swirling clouds. Her hair is arranged with tortoiseshell combs and hairpins decorated with flowers and spools of thread. Although her kamuro or child apprentices are mentioned by name in the text, they are not shown in the picture. A terrific Edo era beauty design.

Artist: Toyokuni III/Kunisada (1786 - 1864)
Presented in a new black mat.
Mat size: 19"H x 13"W
Paper size: 14.5"H x 10"W
Image size: 14"H x 9.5"W

Utagawa Hiroshige was born in 1797 in the Yayosu Quay section of the Yaesu area in Edo (modern Tokyo). He was of a samurai background, and was the great-grandson of Tanaka Tokuemon, who held a position of power under the Tsugaru clan in the northern province of Mutsu.

Not long after his parents' deaths, perhaps at around fourteen, Hiroshige—then named Tokutarō— began painting. He sought the tutelage of Toyokuni of the Utagawa school, but Toyokuni had too many pupils to make room for him. A librarian introduced him instead to Toyohiro of the same school. By 1812 Hiroshige was permitted to sign his works, which he did under the art name Hiroshige. He also studied the techniques of the well-established Kanō school, the nanga whose tradition began with the Chinese Southern School, and the realistic Shijō school, and likely the linear perspective techniques of Western art and uki-e.

Hiroshige's apprentice work included book illustrations and single-sheet ukiyo-e prints of female beauties and kabuki actors in the Utagawa style. It was not until 1829–1830 that Hiroshige began to produce the landscapes he has come to be known for, such as the Eight Views of Ōmi series. He also created an increasing number of bird and flower prints about this time. About 1831, his Ten Famous Places in the Eastern Capital appeared, and seem to bear the influence of Hokusai, whose popular landscape series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji had recently seen publication.

An invitation to join an official procession to Kyoto in 1832 gave Hiroshige the opportunity to travel along the Tōkaidō route that linked the two capitals. He sketched the scenery along the way, and when he returned to Edo he produced the series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, which contains some of his best-known prints. Hiroshige built on the series' success by following it with others, such as the Illustrated Places of Naniwa (1834), Famous Places of Kyoto (1835), another Eight Views of Ōmi (1834).
During his lifetime Kunisada Utagawa was considered to be the best print designer by his contemporaries. He was more popular than Hiroshige, Hokusai or Kuniyoshi. And Kunisada was extremely productive. His total output is estimated at more than 20,000 designs, many made by his students.

Kunisada was born near Edo (today Tokyo) as the son of an affluent merchant with a ferry boat license. At the age of fifteen he joined the famous art school of Utagawa Toyokuni and took the name Kunisada.

In 1807 the young artist produced his first illustrated book. And in 1808 his first actor prints were published. His fame grew fast. While other artists like Kuniyoshi Utagawa or Hiroshige had to fight for recognition for years, he was successful from the beginning.

He went on to become the most commercially successful of all woodblock printmakers ever. His early success may not have had a good influence on his personality. He had a reputation for his conceited personality.

Kunisada designed a wide spectrum of traditional ukiyo-e subjects like kabuki themes, beautiful women, historical events and quite a few shunga prints. He made few landscapes. See less