Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
" Toyohara Kunichika was a Japanese print designer living and working in the dramatically changing times of the modern era in Japan. Upon the Meiji restoration of 1868, the capital, Edo, became Tokyo and the country opened its ports to the world after centuries of isolation . Kunichika, like many, was developing designs for prints done in the highly refined method of Japanese wood block printing. Most of his designs reflect the ukiyo-e (meaning “floating world”) culture in Japan.
Kunichika was known as a low status, but care-free artisan, highly immersed in the ukiyo lifestyle, which was essentially freedom from the customary and restricted world in Japan. This lifestyle involved drinking, courtesans, and entertainment such as the Kabuki Theater. And so many of his works reflect this life, especially in the Kabuki Theater. He is most famous for his enormous series of prints of Kabuki actors, all appearing very dramatic and theatrical, charged with a great deal of energy and excitement.
One of his earlier works shows a more light and elegant depiction of either a Kabuki actor, or possibly an actual Samurai, a higher class of Japanese people who also celebrated the ukiyo lifestyle. This piece titled Samurai Warrior is located in Purdue University’s permanent collection and can be identified as a print from his more formative period around the mid-1860s. Important to notice about this and all of Kunichika’s prints is that the use of color reflects a great deal of skill and refinement, as each color is printed separately from a different woodblock, and so each block is carved with extreme accuracy and care, generally by a workshop of artists. The use of diagonal lines and vibrant colors is characteristic of Japanese woodblock printing, and evokes a sense of action and movement in the piece."Label Type
Exhibition labelLabel
Toyohara Kunichika 豊原國周 (1835–1900), Japanese
Sawamura Tanosuke 沢村田之助 in the role of Hanaregoma Chōkichi はなれ駒長吉), 1864
Ink and paper wood block printing
1997.14.03
Toyohara Kunichika is best known for his colorful depictions of kabuki actors such as this piece. Called yakusha-e, they are a subset of ukiyo-e prints. This is the central panel of a triptych, each panel featuring a main character in the play Futatsu Cho Iro no Dekiaki. On the left is Hanaregoma Chōkichi’s long suffering sister and on the other side is his rival. Hanaregoma Chōkichi is a foolish, impulsive young man who loves fighting rather than running his family’s shop. After being accused of stealing, Hanaregoma Chōkichi reforms his ways. He is standing in a mie, a dramatic kabuki pose assumed by an actor who then freezes to indicate strong emotion or power.