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The
Innovative Ukiyo-e Master Toyokuni I
Utagawa
Toyokuni (1769-1825) was the son of an
important carver of dolls in Edo and is
thought to have shown a talent for
painting from a very early age. He was
sent to serve an apprenticeship at the
studio of a neighbour who, coincidentally,
was no other than Utagawa Toyoharu
(1735-1814), who was the founder of the
Utagawa school, whose members were
virtually the undiputed leaders in the
field of early nineteenth-century prints
of the Floating World. From Toyoharu he
assumed his professional surname and the
first character, Toyo, that makes up his
name.
Robust
In
1786 Toyokuni, like most other artists,
began his career illustrating books,
perharps immediately after making his
first prints of female beauties. But it
was in 1794, at the age of twenty-five,
that Toyokuni entered the circle of the
great masters. The publisher Izumi-ya
Ichibei commisioned from him a group of
portraits of famous actors, depicted full
length against a uniform pale grey
background and without any points of
support – as Harunobu had done
previously in some extraordinary prints,
such as ‘The Water Seller’ (c.1765)
and ‘Ono no Komachi in Court Costume’
(1766-8). Toyokuni’s prints were
innovative, composed in a robust style
that clearly delineated the human figure
and gave the faces powerful expressions
– they were a runaway success. These
first sheets were followed by many others,
to make up in the course of three years a
celebrated series of fifty prints entitled
‘Portraits of Actors in Stage
Costumes’ (Yakusha butai no sugatae)
that turned Toyokuni into a celebrity.
Kabuki
Starting
from the early 1800s, his work focused
increasingly on images of kabuki
actors. The theatre became his source of
inspiration, with the plots and dramatic
tensions often brought out in the poses,
facial expressions and postures of the
characters portrayed. In fact, his vast
output and the monopoly enjoyed by
Toyokuni and his school enable us today to
understand in considerable depth the
history of kabuki during that
period.
Because Toyokuni was
producing theatre prints at a hectic rate (so
hectic, in fact, that eventually it had a negative
impact on the quality of the work), he designed very
few works with erotic subjects, and mainly after
1820 (such as the prints below!), Toyokuni produced
prints and paintings of female beauties, at the same
time as artistic giants such as Kiyonaga, Utamaro
and Eishi.
Shunga
Although
Toyokuni only worked on erotic subjects (shunga)
later in his career (in his fifties) and mainly
designed shungabooks his contribution to the genre
is not to be underestimated. In 1820s he produced
two influential shungabook series namely Picture
Book: Mirror of the Vagina (Ehon kaichu
kagami,1823) and A Set of Three Sake Cups (Mitsugumi
sakazuki,1825) which included dynamic designs with a
great variety of themes and from an original
perspecitve. In some of the prints in Picture
Book:Mirror of the Vagina the artist creates a
link between the different scenes featuring the same
setting but from different points of view in
succesive sheets. The prints depicting outside
activities in Three Sake Cups-series,
published in the year of Toyokuni’s death, all
involve heavy downpour giving the designs a more
dramatic force and are evidence of his
distinguishing talent.
You can find some of
the designs of Ehon kaichu kagami if you >
click
here (Scroll down to p1104)
Designs from the Mitsugumi
sakazuki series can be found below ! |
- US$ > 
