Jump to main content
一勇斎国芳(歌川国芳)筆「みかけハこハゐがとんだいゝ人だ 」 /

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

An ukiyo-e artist of the end of the Edo period known for his outlandish compositions and innovative painting style

1797-1861

       Utagawa Kuniyoshi was an Utagawa-school ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo period (c. 1750-1850). He was born in Nihonbashi, Edo (now Chuo-ku Ward, Tokyo) as the son of the silk -dyer Kichiemon Yanagiya Kichiemon. His common popular name was Magosaburo Igusa Magosaburo. Other names of his included Ichiyusai and Chooro. When making erotic paintings, he used the artistic A pseudonym he used when making shunga was Hodoyoshi Ichimyokai Hodoyoshi. A painting he made at the age of 12 of Zhong Kui, the Chinese mythical vanquisher of evil demons, at the age of 12 is said to have impressed Toyokuni Utagawa Toyokuni I, whose student he then became. Around 1827 he began making available to the public the series Achieving instantaneous success with the Tsuzoku "Suikoden" goketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori ("108 Heroes of the Popular 'Water Margin'"), with which he achieved instant success. As a result of this series, he began putting out around 1827, he came to be called "Kuniyoshi the warrior painter." of musha-e (warrior paintings)."

       Kuniyoshi's range of subjects styles also extended from to yakusha-e actor portraits, to portraits of beautiful women, bijin-ga (portraits of Japanese beauties), caricatures, paintings of animals and children, satirical sketches, illustrated stories, and illustrated books printed with woodblocksillustrations for books made of woodblock prints, and more. His landscape paintings, by incorporating which incorporated Western styles of expression, featured innovative compositions, among which is. Among these, he is known for series of paintings such as his Toto meisho ("Famous Places in the Eastern Capital [Edo].").

Many of his works featured outlandish and playful compositions., including  Two outlandish warrior paintings of his are his Soma no furudairi ("The Old Palace at Soma"), featuring a massive skeleton, the a scene that he borrowed painted from the popular yomihon novel Chinsetsu yumiharizuki ("Strange Tales of the Crescent Moon"); and the triptych and Sanuki- no- in kenzoku o shite Tametomo o sukuu zu ("The Former Emperor Sutoku from Sanuki Sends Retainers to Rescue Tametomo"), showing with its a gigantic, ferocious shark and several crow-billed tengu., both musha-e, Two playful caricatures of his are as well as Neko no ateji (Cats as Kana"Cats as Substitute Kanji"), with its combinations of cats forming kana letterscharacters; and Mikake wa kowai ga tonda ii hito da ("A Nice Person, Though Scary in Appearance, Such a Nice Person"), in which naked bodies form the image of a person. both giga caricatures. Kuniyoshi was a known cat lover, and cats were often featured in his works.

       Kuniyoshi died at his home in Gen'yadana (present-day Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku Ward, Tokyo) on the fifth day of the lunar Third Month March in 1861 at the age of 65. Though He was initially interred at Daisen-ji Temple in Asakusa, Edo (now Taito-ku Ward, Tokyo), but after two relocations, his tombstone is currently located at the Nichiren sect Daisen-ji Temple of the Nichiren sect in Kodaira, Tokyo. His students included Yoshitora Utagawa Yoshitora, Yoshifusa Utagawa Yoshifusa, Yoshiiku Ochiai Yoshiiku, and Yoshitoshi Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

Related People, Things and Events

Books

Illustrations by Kuniyoshi Utagawa

Related Works

Musha-e (portraits of warriors)

Giga (caricatures)

Yakusha-e (portraits of actors)

Bijin-ga (paintings of beautiful women)

Fukei-ga and meisho-e (landscape paintings and paintings of famous places)

Monogatari-e (narrative paintings)

Dobusu-ga (animal paintings)

Kodomo-e (woodblock prints of children at play)

Past Exhibitions

TitleshusaiPlaceopenclose

Institutions Holding Related Materials

  • The National Diet Library (NDL), founded in 1948, is the library which belongs to the Diet. The NDL assists the activities of the National Diet. The Library collects and conserves materials and information both from Japan and abroad, serving as a foundation of knowledge and culture and providing library services to administrative and judicial entities and Japanese citizens.

  • As Japan’s representative museum, Tokyo National Museum collects, preserves, displays, and researches the cultural properties of Asia with a focus on Japan, and also provides educational programs.

  • The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is founded on November 3, 1983, in Hachioji, a thriving university town in the western suburbs of the Japanese capital. Priding itself as “a museum creating bridges around the world” to facilitate the exchange of different cultures, our museum has forged cordial relations with art museums and cultural institutes in 32 countries and territories to date. We do so by bringing the world’s finest works of art to Japan while reciprocating in kind by introducing the finest Japanese treasures to the world through special exhibitions that showcase their beauty and wonder through a unique new set of prisms and perspectives. Our museum possesses some 30,000 pieces of artworks from various periods and cultures including Japanese, Eastern and Western works, ranging from paintings, prints, photography, sculptures, ceramics and lacquer ware to armor, swords and medallions. Especially noteworthy is its outstanding collection of Western oil paintings that spans a five-hundred-year period from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Romanticism to Impressionism and contemporary art, as well as its exceptional collection of photographic masterpieces that can give an overview of the history of photography from the birth of the photograph to the present age.

  • 東京農工大学科学博物館の歴史は明治19年(1886年)、東京農工大学工学部の前身である農商務省蚕病試験場の「参考品陳列場」にはじまります。昭和27年(1952年)、博物館法に基づく「博物館相当施設」に指定され、昭和52年(1977年)には工学部附属繊維博物館として制度化されました。平成20年度より「東京農工大学科学博物館」へと名称を変更し、工学部附属から全学化された科学博物館へ、繊維に特化した博物館から、本学の農学・工学の研究成果を発信する基地として、またこれまで以上に研究・教育活動に重点をおいた大学博物館施設としての生まれ変わりが期待されております。

  • The Art Research Center was established in 1998. Since then, the Center’s mission has been not only to conduct historical and social research and analyses of both tangible and intangible human cultural properties such as visual and performing arts and craftsmanship, but also to record, organize, preserve, and disseminate the research outcomes. To make the vast amount of database of resources on Japanese culture kept at the Art Research Center available to joint researchers in and outside of Japan, while providing the hitherto accumulated digital archiving and database management technologies as the basis for research project activities to promote information archiving and the circulating of joint research on knowledge. Through these undertakings, the Center aims to “become a world class research center” in the field of Digital Humanities.

  • 東京都渋谷区に所在。5代太田清藏(1893-1977)が蒐集した浮世絵コレクションを、広く公開するために設立された美術館で、コレクションには歌川国芳も含まれています。

  • 岡山県倉敷市の倉敷美観地区に所在。美観地区を一望できる旅館を再生して開館、国芳の作品のほか、国芳の門人にも光を当て、選りすぐりの約100作品を紹介しています。

External Links

  • アダチ版画研究所が運営するサイト「北斎今昔」より。

  • 太田記念美術館HPより。2011年の展覧会の概要を、作品の画像とともに紹介している。

  • 太田記念美術館HPより。2019年の展覧会について、作品の画像とともに紹介している。

  • 太田記念美術館HPより。2021年の展覧会「PART Ⅰ 憂き世を笑いに!―戯画と世相」「PART Ⅱ 江戸っ子を驚かす!―武者と風景」について、作品の画像とともに紹介している。

  • note株式会社が提供する「note」より。太田記念美術館の首席学芸員が、国芳の「里すずめねぐらの仮宿」について画像とともに解説している。

  • 「キュレーターズノート」2015年08月01日号(DNP大日本印刷「artscapeアートスケープ」)より。札幌芸術の森美術館で開催された展覧会について、作品の図解入りで解説をしている。

  • 国立国会図書館 電子展示会「錦絵で楽しむ江戸の名所」より。国芳による名所絵が見られる。

  • 2016年に開催された展覧会HPより。国芳と歌川国貞(歌川豊国3世)の作品紹介。

  • Tokyo Museum Collectionは、六つの都立ミュージアム(江戸東京博物館、東京都写真美術館、東京都現代美術館、東京都庭園美術館、東京都美術館、江戸東京たてもの園)が収蔵する資料・作品を、横断的に検索できるデータベース。「歌川国芳」と入力して検索すると、200件強の浮世絵がヒットする。

  • キーワードに「歌川国芳」と入力して検索すると、20件以上の浮世絵がヒットする。

  • ネット美術館「アートまとめん」より。

References

  1. サンプルページ「歌川国芳」の項
  2. 「歌川国芳」の項
  3. 「歌川国芳」の項
  4. 「歌川国芳」の項
  5. 鈴木重三,平凡社
  6. 編集制作: 座右宝刊行会,集英社
  7. 小林忠 監修,平凡社17世紀後半・草創期の菱川師宣から鈴木春信,江戸の四大浮世絵師を経て,近代の河鍋暁斎,小林清親に至る50余名の浮世絵師を紹介す。(日本児童図書出版協会)
  8. 歌川国芳 [画],岩切友里子 監修,岩切友里子, 日本経済新聞社文化事業部 編,日本経済新聞社
  9. 歴史学研究会 編,岩波書店