Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 11

Utagawa Toyokuni
Inari Kozo Tasaburo- Kabuki

1820

About the Item

Inari Kozo Tasaburo- Kabuki Color woodcut, c. 1820 Signed: ‘Toyokuni’ Publisher: ‘Yamamoto Heikichi’ Censor: Hama and Magome Very good impression and color Sheet/Image size: 15 1/2 x 10 5/8 inches Note: Kabuki actor Ichikawa Monnosuke is in the role of Inari Kozo Tasaburo. He swam the river and is wringing his clothes at the riverbank. A scene from the play “Edo no Hana Mukashi Nishiki E” performed at Kawarazaki theater. Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825) Toyokuni Utagawa was one of the great printmakers of the late 18th century who made himself known by his ukiyo-e of beautiful women and later of actors. As the head of the Utagawa school he was also the most influential man on the next generation of ukiyo-e designers. Toyokuni was born the son of a puppet maker. He learned printmaking as a student of Toyoharu. At the beginning of his career he concentrated on bijin-ga - images of beautiful women. His early works were influenced by Kiyonaga and Shigemasa. Toyokuni's success and fame came when he started making actor portraits and actor scenes. The Kabuki theaters were very crowded at that time and the best known actors were a kind of public icons. Consequently prints related to Kabuki were a hot business. Demand came from the theaters - for advertising material - and from the fans - in the form of actor portraits. The production of actor portraits was like today's publication of celebrity posters. When the demand for actor prints grew faster than the master could design, the great moment of the Utagawa School had come. An ever increasing number of students produced actor prints and book illustrations. The Utagawa School was buzzing with commissions. The Utagawa School flourished so well that Toyokuni Utagawa is sometimes mentioned as the founder of the Utagawa School, but that was actually Toyoharu. Toyokuni, however, was the one who made it big and who went into mass production. The comparison may be a bit daring. But basically the Utagawa School was something like the Andy Warhol factory of the Pop Art culture - at least in commercial terms. The best known ukiyo-e students of the master Toyokuni Utagawa were Kunisada Utagawa and Kuniyoshi Utagawa. The tombstone of Toyokuni listed altogether 29 students. After the death of Toyokuni in 1825, two of his pupils rivaled about who had the right to become his successor - the conceited Kunisada, who considered himself the greatest on earth anyway, and Toyoshige, a mediocre printmaker who had the advantage of having married his deceased master's daughter. The row about the succession to Toyokuni as the head of the Utagawa School was fought on arguments over who was the best ukiyo-e designer. But that was an argument on the surface. The real fight was about who got control of a flourishing business company - the Utagawa School. Toyoshige won the fight but died in 1835. From 1844 on Kunisada called himself Toyokuni. In today's literature Kunisada is referred to as Toyokuni III, Toyoshige as Toyokuni II and the master as Toyokuni I. Courtesy, Artelino Literature sources used for this biography: • Richard Lane, Images from the Floating World (New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1978) • Laurance P.Roberts, A Dictionary of Japanese Artists (New York: John Weatherhill Inc., 1976)
  • Creator:
    Utagawa Toyokuni (1769 - 1825)
  • Creation Year:
    1820
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 15.5 in (39.37 cm)Width: 10.63 in (27.01 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Fairlawn, OH
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: UK22411stDibs: LU14013694512

More From This Seller

View All
The Quilter
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Quilter Color woodcut printed on cream color wove paper c. 1990 Signed in pencil lower right (see photo) Signed with the artist's stamp lower right in the pencil signature (see p...
Category

1990s Contemporary Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Ave Maria-Nanban Music
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ave Maria-Nanban Music Color woodcut with mica sprinkles, 1925 Signed Hide in image, Signed Kawanishi Hide on printed mount From: Dojin zasshi, Hanga Magazine, Volume 5, No. 4 Condi...
Category

1920s Other Art Style Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

The Bathers
By Winslow Homer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Bathers Woodengraving, 1873 As published in Harper's Weekly, August 2, 1873 (p. 668) Provenance: Wunderlich & Co., Inc., New York, NY (Their stock no. 84.003.8 in pencil recto a...
Category

1870s American Realist Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Arashi Rikan II in an Osaka Kabuki Scene
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Arashi Rikan II in an Osaka Kabuki Scene Color woodcut, c. 1827 Signed middle left (see photo) Titled upper left (see photo) Format: oban Publisher: Honsei The actor, in character, d...
Category

1820s Other Art Style Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Morita Kanya XIII As Genta Kagesue in the play Genta Kando
By Natori Shunsen
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Morita Kanya XIII As Genta Kagesue in the play Genta Kando Color woodcut, 1928 Signed and stamped middle right edge Natori stamp lower left image edge Series: Collection of Creative...
Category

1920s Showa Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Foreign Soldiers from Five Countries at the Port of Yokohama
By Utagawa Yoshitora
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Foreign Soldiers from Five Countries at the Port of Yokohama Color woodcut triptych, c. 1860's Signed in the block lower left corner Signed: "Ichimosai Yoshitora ga" Condition: Mounted to a rose colored silk backing (stable) Staining (visible) in the joining of the right and center sheets Colors very slightly faded Image size: 15 3/8 x 31 3/8 inches (triptysch sheets joined to make one print) The 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa opened Japan to the West. Curiosity about the never-before-seen foreigners spurred a market in Yokohama-e (Yokohama prints), named for the area to which foreign dignitaries and merchants were confined. Yoshitora became one of the best known and most active artists of the Yokohama-e school. Utagawa Yoshitora (歌川 芳虎) was a designer of ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints and an illustrator of books and newspapers who was active from about 1850 to about 1880. He was born in Edo (modern Tokyo), but neither his date of birth nor date of death is known. However, he was the oldest pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi who excelled in prints of warriors, kabuki actors, beautiful women, and foreigners (Yokohama-e). He may not have seen any of the foreign scenes he depicted. Yoshitora was prolific: he produced over 60 print series and illustrated over 100 books. In 1849 he produced an irreverent print called Dōke musha: Miyo no wakamochi ("Funny Warriors—Our Ruler's New Year's Rice Cakes"), which depicts Oda Nobunaga, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi...
Category

Mid-19th Century Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

You May Also Like

Violinist
Located in Berlin, MD
Engelina (Engelien) Reitsma-Valença (3 May 1889 - 11 July 1981) Amsterdam, Netherland. The portrait is of a violinist playing what appears to be an enervating piece. An engraver, st...
Category

Early 20th Century Art Deco Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Jacob Steinhardt Woodcut Print "Rachel Weeping For Her Children" Signed Numbered
By Jacob Steinhardt
Located in Detroit, MI
“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” This verse from Jeremiah 31:15 is the subject of this woodcut print by Jacob Steinhardt, depicting Rachel, who was the mother of the tribes of Joshua and Benjamin, and who was the wife of Jacob who was Israel, weeping for her children which is to be understood as after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, the Israelites were clustered into Ramah, the home of the Benjaminites, before being taken into the Babylonian captivity; Rachel is weeping for the destruction and expulsion of her descendants. This work is exemplary of the Jewish themes of Jacob Steinhardt, a German Jew...
Category

1960s Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

MPV Chalski (sp?), (Walled European City)
Located in New York, NY
This amazing bird's-eye-view of an ancient European town is a wonder to behold. There is such detail and interesting perspective. Maybe the artist (unknown...
Category

1920s Modern Landscape Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Oscar Weissbuch, Westchester Hills (NY), New Deal, WPA-era wood engraving
Located in New York, NY
New York City native Oscar Weissbuch (1904-1948), attended the Yale University School of Fine Arts and the Art Students League, NY. He participated in the NYC-WPA printmaking project...
Category

1930s American Modern Landscape Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Le Vieux Manuscrits, Coree-Seoul
By Paul Jacoulet
Located in Rio Vista, CA
Fascinating artwork titled Le Vieux manusrits (old writings Seoul Korea) by Paul Jacoulet. (French-Japanese 1896-1960) finely crafted with lovely graduating background color blue to light green. Depicts a figure seated on a pink pillow wearing a Korean hat...
Category

20th Century Realist Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Young girl Combing her Hair - Signed Woodcut - Fauve Art
By Maurice de Vlaminck
Located in London, GB
MAURICE DE VLAMINCK 1876-1958 Paris 1876-1958 Rueil-la-Gadelière, Eure-et-Loir (French) Title: Young girl Combing her Hair Jeune fille se coiffant, 1906/1957 Technique: Original Hand Signed and Numbered Woodcut...
Category

1950s Fauvist Figurative Prints

Materials

Woodcut

Recently Viewed

View All