Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"Kuniyoshi was one of the outstanding Ukiyo-e artists of the late Edo period in the 19th century. Born in Edo (Tokyo) in 1797, the young Yoshisaburo developed a passion for drawing at a very early age. At the age of 14, he joined the famous Utagawa School, headed by the great master Toyokuni. Toyokuni gave his talented student the name Kuniyoshi. At that time a student received a new artist name that was connected to the master's. The name was created from the ending kuni of Toyokuni and the beginning of the boy's name Yoshisaburo.
Like many others of the Utagawa School, he started out with theatre prints, but his initial lack of success led to several hard years. He later produced a number of heroic triptychs that were well thought of. And in 1827 he started the series which was to secure his place, the Suikoden, or “Hundred and Eight Chinese Heroes.”
In the 1840’s, Japan was in the final phase of a long era of peace and relative prosperity under the Shogunate rule. However the price to be paid was a strict and oppressive rule that controlled even the most trivial of everyday activities. Kuniyoshi Utagawa was among the artists who quietly protested with satire and irony in his prints. In 1843 the artist came under investigation for a satirical triptych. He was eventually fined and reprimanded, and the woodblocks for the triptych were destroyed.
This image is one of a bijin or beautiful woman. During the Edo Period, very few adult females star as the central figures of woodblock prints. While women of pleasure predominate in ukiyo-e, historical women could be depicted as something other than an object of male desire. Kuniyoshi's interest in the heroic woman seems to have begun early in his career, but it was not until the 1840s that Kuniyoshi began to devote whole series to the theme. His historical women retain strength, nobility and character as their primary traits.
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