"The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple in Asakusa" - Original Japanese Print by Utagawa Kunitsuna

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"The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple in Asakusa" - Original Japanese Print

Japanese Print "The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple … Read more "The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple in Asakusa" - Original Japanese Print

Japanese Print "The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple in Asakusa", from the series "Famous Places in Edo" by Utagawa Kunitsuna (Japanese, 1786-1865).

Signed and dated "Kunitsuna" on bottom of paper.

Mat: 14"H x 18"W
Paper: 12 3/4"H x 16 1/4"W
Image: 9 3/4"H x 14"W

Utagawa Kunisada I (歌川國貞 [初代] 1786-1865) was the most celebrated actor-print designer of the nineteenth century, and certainly the most prolific. He was born and raised in the Honjô district of Edo, the son of a well-to-do ferry owner. This licensed ferry service provided the family with a measure of financial security that Kunisada was able to access during his early years of printmaking apprenticeship. His family name was Tsunoda (角田) and given name Shôgorô IX (庄五朗) and also Shôzô (庄蔵). [Note: Some have read the kanji for Tsunoda 角田 as "Sumida."]

In 1800-1801, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, he became a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni I (歌川豊國 1769-1825) and took the artist name "Kunisada" (國貞) soon thereafter (see signature image at immediate right). In 1/1807 he produced his first independent work — an illustrated promotional brochure for perfumed oil made by Yorozuya Shirobei. The text was wirtten by the eminent novelist Takizawa Bakin (滝沢馬琴 1767-1848) and titled "Gate of immortality, New Year's water for cosmetics (Oi senu kado keshô no wakamizu). Distributed as a New Year's gift, it was not a commercial production, although it was later sold as such in a trade edition in 1809.

In 3/1807, Kunisada provided designs in the genre of bijinga (pictures of beautiful women: 美人画) for the series Keisei junitoki (Twelve hours of the courtesans: 傾城十二時). These early bijinga were somewhat immature and suffered in comparison to his designs in this genre even just two years later in 1809. Kunisada's first theatrical print was made in 3/1808, a fan print (uchiwa-e: 團扇絵) portraying Matsumoto Kôshirô V as Nikki Danjo, published by Senzaburô (Dansendô). The following month, Kunisada depicted the Osaka-based actor Nakamura Utaemon III performing at the Nakamura-za in Edo as Yojirô the monkey trainer in the play Oshun Denbei. Soon after, he completed a triptych of beauties and then embarked on illustrations for books (ehon or picture books: 絵本). He would continue to design for ehon throughout his career, providing huge numbers of images for actor-print books and illustrated popular fiction. Even early on, he was prodigiously creative in this genre, as in 1808 when he contributed to no fewer then fourteen ehon.

By the 1810s Kunisada was involved in designing more than fifty series of beauties and actors, as well as a few warrior prints. Yet although much of his reputation rests upon his actor prints (yakusha-e: 役者絵), which represent roughly sixty percent of his total oeuvre, Kunisada was in fact a leading designer of bijinga. He also excelled in the design of surimono (privately issued and distributed high-quality specialty prints: 摺物). He produced large numbers of surimono in the prevailing shikishiban format (色紙判 approx. 205 x 185 mm), such as the one shown below from 11/1823 depicting Ichikawa Danjûrô VII as Iga no Jutarô.

It was during the second decade of the nineteenth century that Kunisada established his teaching studio. By 1814 his students were already designing their own book illustrations for publication. It has been estimated that as many as 15,000 to 20,000 print designs were issued from his studio, as well as thousands of illustrations for woodblock-printed books (ehon). Given that some of these single-sheet prints and ehon were issued in thousands of impressions, the number of actual printed sheets sold by the various publishers over Kunisada's long career must have been astounding. Little wonder that his prints are among the most frequently encountered in collections around the world. Kunisada enjoyed enormous commercial success once he established his studio, whose production of Utagawa-school woodcuts dominated the world of ukiyo-e prints from the 1820s into the beginning of the Meiji era. It seems that without question, he became the most prolific and most commercially successful artist in the history of the ukiyo-e school. See less