Ippitsusai Buncho

Iwai Hanjirō IV.

Ippitsusai Bunchō ( Japanese 一筆 祭 文 調 , actually Ippitsusai Seishi ( 一筆 祭 誠 之 ), originally Kishi Uemon ( 岸 右衛門 ), stage name : Jajintei ( 巴 人 亭 ), Sōyōan ( 桑 陽 庵 ); active between around 1765 and 1792) was a Japanese painter of the ukiyoe style during the middle Edo period .

life and work

Bunchō studied under Ishikawa Yukimoto ( 石川 幸 元 ), a painter of the Kanō school , and was an active ukiyoe artist from the Meiwa period (1764–1772) to the An'ei period (1772–1781). He lived in the time when the multicolored woodcuts, the "brocade pictures" ( 錦 絵 Nishiki-e ) came into use and worked in a style similar to that of Harunobu and Shunshō . In fact, he worked with them too.

Bunchō specialized in kabuki actor portraits in a fairly realistic manner. Many of the prints were in a small format, the Hōsoban ( 細 版 ; approx. 33 × 15 cm). His best prints of this type include the portrait of the actor Yamashita Kyōnosuke in a fox mask ( 山下 京 之 助 の う し ろ 面 Yamashita Kyōnosuke no ushiro-men ), who plays a dual role as a fox and a woman, and the print "Ichikawa Benzō enters his artist's room" ( 市 川 弁 蔵 の 楽 屋 入 す る 図 ).

Bunchō not only produced his small-format actor portraits, but he also worked with Shunshō on a three-volume edition of actor portraits, the "picture book of actors on fans " ( 絵 本 舞台 扇 Ehon butai ōgi ). - He also painted some pictures, including one with the title “Miss Osen in the tea house” ( お せ ん 茶屋 図 Osen chaya-zu ). Osen was the daughter of a tea house owner on the grounds of the Kasamori Inari Shrine ( 笠 森 稲 荷 ) in the Taninaka district of Edo, which was famous for its beauty.

In the years 1769/70 he was more in demand than Shunshō, but then this outperformed him. The students of Bunchō include Bunshō, Yanagi Bunchō ( 柳 文 朝 ), Bunkō and Tamagawa Shūchō ( 玉川 舟 調 ).

photos

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  Kyōnosuke with a fox mask

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  Matsumoto Kōshirō III

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  Matsumoto Kōshirō III

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  Onoe Tamizo
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  Ichikawa Yaozō II
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  Ishikawa School actor

Remarks

1. ↑ In a female role. In the possession of the Museum for Asian Art, Berlin

literature

• Inagaki, Shin'ichi: Ippitsusai Bunchō . In: Ukiyoe Nyūmon . Kawade, 1990, ISBN 4-309-72476-0 .
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Ippitsusai Bunchō . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art . Kodansha International, 1981, ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: Ippitsusai Bunchō . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists . Weatherhill, 1976, ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

Web links

Commons : Ippitsusai Bunchō  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Ippitsusai is the family name, Bunchō the first name.