Kunisada (AKA Toyokuni III,1786 - 1864 )
View works signed Toyokuni III
Kunisada, also known as Toyokuni III, was born in the Honjo district of Edo as Kunisada Tsunoda. Kunisada’s family owned a small hereditary ferryboat service. Though his father, an amateur poet, died when Kunisada was a child, the family business provided some financial security. During his childhood, he showed considerable promise in painting and drawing. Due to strong familial ties with literary and theatrical circles, he spent time studying actor portraits.
At age 14, he was admitted to study under Toyokuni, head of the Utagawa school. Kunisada’s woodblock print work embodies the characteristics of the Utagawa school, focusing on traditional subjects such as kabuki, bijin (beautiful women), shunga (erotic prints), and historical prints. His first known print dates to 1807, his first illustrated book to 1808. Kunisada’s art career took off from the beginning. Many of his works became overnight successes and he was considered the “star attraction” of the Utagawa school. He signed his works “Kunisada,” sometimes with the studio names of Gototei and Kochoro affixed. In 1844, he adopted the name of his teacher and became Toyokuni III. Kunisada passed away in 1864 in the same neighborhood that he was born. He was 70 years old. Kunisada was a highly popular, and the most active, ukiyo-e print artist of the 19th century. In his time, his reputation surpassed those of his contemporaries Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi.
Japanese Woodblock Prints (1800 - 1868)
By the 19th century, Japanese woodblock prints achieved extraordinary popularity. While the shogunate issued a battery of censorship reforms throughout the 1800s, artists ignored and evaded restrictions with images of indulgent beauties and vibrant kabuki actors. As constraints tightened in the 1840s, bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) became earthier in prints by Eizan and Eisen, while kabuki actors persevered in the work of Kunisada (aka Toyokuni III). During this period, ukiyo-e artists also added landscapes, warriors, ghosts and scenes of everyday life to their oeuvre. Artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige indulged a national wanderlust through Meisho-e or “famous place pictures,” while Kuniyoshi championed musha-e, a genre of warrior and legendary pictures.
69 Products
Kunisada
Kabuki Actors Seki Sanjuro II as Takaichi Buemon, Bando Tamasaburo I as Takaichi Shonosuke
JP-209811
Kunisada
Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII as Kagekiyo
JPR-210525
Kunisada
Courtesan Ainare of Kadoebiya with Kamuro Kanomo and Konomo
JP-209808
Kunisada
Kabuki Actor Bando Mitsugoro as Hige no Ikyu
JP-209804
Kunisada
Nakamura Shikan II Announces Farewell Performance
JPR-209578
Kunisada
View of Sangen Teahouse in Snow at Fukagawa Hachiman Shrine in Toto (Edo)
JP-111018
Kunisada
Sumo Wrestlers Iwatoyama (Mt. Iwato) and Hiodoshi (Crimson Threat)
JPR-106528
Kunisada
Kabuki Actor Kataoka Ichizo as Naosuke Gonbei
JP-107934
Kunisada
Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Monnosuke as the Geisha Chokichi
JP-107607
Kunisada
Kabuki Actor Bando Mitsugoro as Yamatoya Hanbei
JP-107605
Kunisada
Kabuki Actor Sawamura Tossho as Funagashira-Koheiji
JP-107800
Kunisada
Kabuki Actor Nakamura Shikan as Sato Tadanobu
JP5880