Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Utagawa Kuniyoshi was born in japan 1798, and died 1861. He was a master of the japanese ukiyo-e style of printmaking, which used woodblock prints.
While his creations covered a large range of subjects, from landscapes to cats. His most famous work are his depictions of samurai battles.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s inspiration came from a variety of sources, including his father’s use of color and pattern in his pattern designs, use of value as such found in western art, Katsushika Hokusai ‘s work, and western shading techniques and perspective.
THE SUIKODEN SERIES
Before adapting the popular “Tsūzoku Suikoden gōketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori”, he had already done work on book illustrations before, but none garnered as much attention as this series, and after working on these pieces had a large increase in popularity, giving him access to major Ukiyo-e and literary groups and people.
This comission was his first one that was incredibly important. The suikoden series was a book series based on a famous chinese tale known as "Shuihu Zhuan".
Kuniyoshi's work was to illustrate the heroes depicted in the literary work. His artistic choices were incredibly impactful at the time, even influencing Edo period fashion because of the tatoos he drew on the characters.
UKIYO -E
Ukiyo-e is an art genre mainly used in Japan during the Edo period. It is a technique where artists use wooden blocks and paint to create amazing pieces of artwork. This is the type of art that Utagawa Kuniyoshi specialized in and a famous example of his work is the piece “Princess Takiyasha Summons a Skeleton Spectre to Frighten Mitsukuni”, created in 1844.
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Ukiyo-e prints were usually the work of multiple artists, and their work was divided into four roles. Despite the shared workload, it was often the case where only the artists and publishers were credited for the print.
The publishers: the person that commissions, advertises and sends out the prints
The artists: the people who creates the designs that is printed
The woodcarvers: the people who carve and shape the wood into the required shape for printing
The painters: the people who use the wood blocks to print the image onto the hand made paper used in Ukiyo e printing.
Using the two dimensional art form known as Ukiyo-e, a form of woodblock printing, Utagawa kuniyoshi covered a variety of topics, ranging from portraits of cats to landscape pieces. Utagawa kuniyoshi’s work is often inspired by his imagination, as shown in his depictions of legendary heroes from the fictionary book series: One hundred and eight heroes of the popular Suikoden all told, Tale of the Heike, etc.
Transcript (Watercolor)
Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido: Warabi, Inuyama Dosetsu, Edo period
