Utagawa Kunimasa

The garden bathtub

In this Japanese name, the surname is Utagawa.

Utagawa Kunimasa (歌川 国政, 1773 – December 26, 1810) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Utagawa school. He was originally from Aizu in Iwashiro Province and first worked in a dye shop after arriving in Edo (modern Tokyo). It was there that he was noticed by Utagawa Toyokuni, to whom he became apprenticed.

Kunimasa is especially known for his yakusha-e portrait prints of kabuki actors, and for his bijin-ga pictures of beautiful women. Richard Lane described his style as striving to "combine the intensity of Sharaku with the decorative pageantry of his master Toyokuni". Those who make such comparison often say he failed to achieve the level of Sharaku's intensity.

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  Examples of Kunimasa's signature
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  Ichikawa Danjūrō V in Shibaraku
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  Ichikawa Yaozo III

References

• Lane, Richard. (1978). Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192114471; OCLC 5246796
• Morse, Anne Nishimura (1985). "Utagawa Kunimasa". Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd.

External links

• British Museum: Utagawa Kunimasa, The actor Ichikawa Ebizō in a shibaraku role, a colour woodblock print
• Art site