Time present and time past: images of a forgotten master

Drawing on Japanese and Western-language sources, this work presents an overview of Toyohara Kunichika's life and his prints. The author provides a biographical sketch of Kunichika's life, which is followed by sections on the artist's prints of beautiful women and actors. Over 135 of Kunichika's prints are illustrated. The appendices contain carvers' seals and Kunichika's representative signature forms. The Japanese woodblock-print designer Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) was active during the second half of the 19th century when Japan experienced immense political, social and cultural changes following the restoration of imperial rule under the Meiji emperor. Many traditional arts were challenged by this new age and the art od the woodblock print (ukiyo-e), unable to continue as it once had, entered into its final period. Kunichika's importance lay in his role as a transitional ukiyo-e artist whose career spanned the feudalistic era of the Edo period (1600-1867) and the modern age of the Meiji (1867-1912). He studies with the well-known ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III, 1786-1865) and Kunichika's art remained fundamentally grounded in the Utagawa style that he learnt in Kunisada's studio. Kunichika's designs were drawn from established ukiyo-e genres, ranging from actor prints (yakusha-e), prints of beautiful women (bijinga) to sumo and historical scenes. However, Kunichika was also a man of his time and this is reflected in his use of colour, composition and subjects. He was a versatile artist well capabl of working in different figure styles and print formats: his bijinga illustrated the more traditional image as well as the modern face of Meji-period Japan, his yakusha-e the demigods of the Kabuki stage in popular traditional and western-inspired roles.