Katsukawa Shunchō

Woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunchō titled “Viewing Flowers in Four Seasons” (Shiki no hanami)

Typical signature of Katsukawa Shunchō reading “Shunchō ga” (春湖 画)

Katsukawa Shunchō (勝川 春湖) was a designer of ukiyo-e style Japanese woodblock prints, who was active from about 1783 to about 1795. Although a student of Katsukawa Shunshō, Shunchō’s output, which consists mostly of prints of beautiful women, more closely resembles the work of Torii Kiyonaga. Shunchō also designed many shunga prints, which also resemble those of Torii Kiyonaga.

Other artists named Shunchō

There are four other, less well known ukiyo-e artists known as “Shunchō” in English, although each is written with different kanji :

• 春蝶 An Osaka school artist who was a student of Shunkōsai Hokushū and was active 1815-1823
• 春頂 Another name for the Osaka school artist Shunchōsai Hokushō
• 春朝 Gajuken Shunchō, an Osaka school artist active in the mid-1820s
• 春鳥 A Kyoto artist known as Hotta Shunchō and as Harukawa Shunchō who was active 1815-1821

Bibliography

• Hayashi, Yoshikazu, Kiyonaga to Shunchō, Tokyo, Yuko Shobo, 1976, 135-6.
• Keyes, Roger S. & Keiko Mizushima, The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, 275.
• Lane, Richard, Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print, New York, Putnam, 1978, 327.
• Newland, Amy Reigle, The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amsterdam, Hotei Publishing, 2005, Vol. 2, 456.