Katsukawa School

Katsukawa Shunshō, the actor Ichimura Uzaemon IX. in a Shibaraku scroll, 1778

The Katsukawa School ( Japanese 勝 川 派 , Katsukawa-ha ) was a group of Japanese artists who, as the dominant school, designed templates for woodcuts in the style of ukiyo-e and occasionally during the last decades of the 18th and early 19th centuries also worked as a painter.

The school

founding

The school was founded by Katsukawa Shunshō (1726-1792), who had started around 1765 together with Ippitsusai Buncho (1755-1790) to draw a new type of actor portraits . In contrast to the previous prints by the members of the Torii school , the actors of their Yakusha-e (portraits of actors and scenes from the Kabuki theater ) could be recognized by their individual facial features. The prints looked lively, especially because the artists managed to capture the personal character of each actor despite all the realism.

Focus

After Bunchō had withdrawn in the 1770s, it was Shunshō who, with his numerous students, documented Edo's theatrical life for decades on several thousand woodblock prints . Only a few bijinga (pictures of beautiful women) are known from the masters of the Katsugawa school. In addition, numerous book illustrations, some paintings and surimono can be identified.

For twenty years the members of the Katsugawa school dominated the production of actor portraits and the representation of kabuki scenes in Edo. Around 1790 they faced serious competition in this area from the representatives of the Utagawa School , whose productions were increasingly popular with the public. By the end of the first decade of the 19th century, the Katsugawa school was already becoming meaningless in this field. In addition to the few Yakusha-e that were still designed by their relatives in the following years, they were able to compete in the areas of Sumo-e (portraits of sumo wrestlers and depiction of important wrestling matches) and Musha-e (pictures of historical scenes and famous heroes) claim two more decades against the representatives of the Utagawa school. In these two areas, even the latter had to follow the style of the Katsukawa school until around 1830, as it was still the more popular with buyers. Only three representatives of the school, Katsukawa Shuntei II and III. and Shunzan II, managed to continue their traditions with occasional work in the remaining decades of the Edo period and during the Meiji period .

Katsukawa Shun'ei, the actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II in the role of Karigane no Ofumi, around 1790

Relatives 

The school name Katsukawa goes back to Miyagawa Shinsui ( 宮 川 春水 ), who changed his name to Katsumiyagawa ( 勝 宮 川 ) around 1752 and then to Katsukawa ( 勝 川 ) around 1760 . Shinsui is stylistically assigned to the Miyagawa school ( 宮 川 派 , Miyagawa-ha ), but was one of Shunshō's teachers, who did not adopt the style of the earlier school from this.

The most famous student of Shunshō was Katsushika Hokusai , who as Katsukawa Shunrō learned the craft of drawing and painting ukiyo-e drafts there, but after his death left school and established his own painting and drawing tradition.

The members of the school are listed in alphabetical order. Indented are the students of the previously mentioned master.

• Katsukawa Shunshō ( 勝 川 春 章 ; 1726–1792)
  • Katsukawa Shunbō ( 勝 川 春 卯 ; active 1780–1800)
  • Katsukawa Shunchō ( 勝 川 春潮 , also written with 春 朝 ; active 1780–1795)
  • Katsukawa Shunchō ( 勝 川 春 蝶 ; active 1790–1800)
  • Katsukawa Shundō I. ( 勝 川 春 童 , also written with 春 道 ; active 1770–1790)
  • Katsukawa Shun'ei ( 勝 川 春 英 ; 1762–1819)
    • Katsukawa Shundō ( 勝 川 春 洞 ; active approx. 1795 – approx. 1805)
    • Katsukawa Shundō II. ( 勝 川 春 童 ; active 1805-1830)
    • Katsukawa Shun'en ( 勝 川 春 艶 ; active 1787–95)
    • Katsukawa Shungyoku ( 勝 川 春 玉 ; active 1800–1830)
    • Katsukawa Shunjō ( 勝 川 春 常 ; † 1787, active 1777–1785)
      • Katsukawa Shōju ( 勝 川 正 壽 (??); active 1790–1800)
    • Katsukawa Shunkei ( 勝 川 春景 ; active 1820–1830)
    • Katsukawa Shunkō ( 勝 川 春 幸 ; active 1805–1830)
    • Katsukawa Shunkyū ( 勝 川 春 久 ; active 1800–1830)
    • Katsukawa Shunrin ( 勝 川 春林 ; active 1784–1800)
    • Katsukawa Shunrin ( 勝 川 春琳 ; active 1820–1830)
    • Katsukawa Shunsai ( 勝 川 春 斎 ; active 1830–1840)
    • Katsukawa Shunsei ( 勝 川 春 青 ; active around 1810)
    • Katsukawa Shunsei ( 勝 川 春 清 ; active 1820–1830)
    • Katsukawa Shunsen ( 勝 川 春 扇 ; active around 1805-20), later Katsukawa Shunkō II ( 勝 川 春 好 )
    • Katsukawa Shunsetsu ( 勝 川 春雪 ; active 1805–1815)
    • Katsukawa Shunshō II ( 勝 川 春 章 ; active 1820–1830)
    • Katsukawa Shuntei I. ( 勝 川 春亭 ; 1770-1820)
      • Katsukawa Shuntei II. ( 勝 川 春亭 ;? -1856)
        • Katsukawa Shuntei III. ( 勝 川 春亭 ; 1837–1902)
    • Katsukawa Shuntoku ( 勝 川 春 徳 ; active around 1790-1820)
    • Katsugawa Shunyō ( 勝 川 春陽 ; active 1820–1830)
    • Katsugawa Shunyū ( 勝 川 春雄 ; active 1805–1830)
  • Katsugawa Shungyō ( 勝 川 春 暁 ; active 1780–1840)
  • Katsukawa Shunkaku ( 勝 川 春 鶴 ; active 1790–1800)
  • Katsukawa Shunko ( 勝 川 春光 ; active 1770–1790)
  • Katsukawa Shunko ( 勝 川 春紅 ; active 1790–1820)
  • Katsukawa Shunkō I. ( 勝 川 春 好 , also signed with Shunō 春 翁 ; 1743–1812)
  • Katsukawa Shunkyoku ( 勝 川 春旭 ; active 1775–1800)
  • Katsukawa Shunri ( 勝 川 春 里 ; active 1780–1800)
  • Katsukawa Shunryū ( 勝 川 春龍 ; active 1790–1800)
  • Katsukawa Shunryū ( 勝 川 春柳 ; active 1790–1800)
  • Katsukawa Shunrin ( 勝 川 春林 ; active 1781–1801)
  • Katsukawa Shunrō I. ( 勝 川 春 朗 ; 1760–1849), later Katsushika Hokusai ( 葛 飾 北 斎 )
    • Katsukawa Shunrō II ( 勝 川 春 朗 ; † 1817, active 1785–97), later Utagawa Toyomaru ( 歌 川 豊 丸 )
  • Katsukawa Shunsen ( 勝 川 春川 ; active around 1780)
  • Katsukawa Shunsen ( 勝 川 春泉 ; active 1780–1800)
  • Katsukawa Shunsui ( 勝 川 春水 ; active 1770s), later Tamagawa Shunsui ( 玉川 春水 )
  • Katsukawa Shunwa ( 勝 川 春 和 ; active 1790–1830)
  • Katsukawa Shunzan I. ( 勝 川 春 山 ; active 1778–1800)
    • Katsukawa Shunzan II ( 勝 川 春 山 ,? -1871)

Furthermore, the following artists are also included in the Katsukawa School, although they do not have the school name:

• Kinshōdō Sekiga ( 金 長 洞 石 賀 ; active 1770s-1780s)
• Koikawa Harumachi I. ( 恋 川 春 町 ; 1744–1789)
  • Koikawa Harumachi II. ( 恋 川 春 町 ; active approx. 1800–1830), later Kitagawa Utamaro II. ( 喜 多 川 歌 麿 )
  • Koikawa Harumasa ( 恋 川 春 政 ; active 1800–1820), later Banki Harumasa ( 晩 器 春 政 )

Remarks

1. ↑ The name change was the result of a fatal argument between members of the Miyagawa School and a member of the Kanō School and the subsequent punishment and ostracism of the Miyagawa School. See Timothy Clark: Ukiyo-e Paintings in the British Museum. London 1992, p. 87: “In 1749 (Miyagawa) Chōshun was invited with pupils to participate in repair works at the Tokugawa Mausoleum at Nikkō , under the supervision of Kanō Shunga. A dispute over payment for this work led to a violent attack by Chōshun's son, Chōsuke, in which Shunga and several others were killed. It is thought that Chōshun died in the eleventh month of 1752, about the same time that his leading pupil, Isshō, was permanently banished to Niijima , a remote island off the Izu peninsula. (...) and leadership of the Miyagawa school, renamed the Katsumiyagawa school, subsequently passed to Shunsui. "

literature

• Timothy T. Clark, Osamu Ueda, Donald Jenkins: The Actor's Image. Printmakers of the Katsukawa School. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago 1994, ISBN 0-86559-097-4 (English).
• Amy Reigle Newland (Ed.): The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints . 2 volumes, Amsterdam, 2005, ISBN 90-74822-65-7 (English), p. 522.
• Friedrich B. Schwan: Handbook of Japanese woodcut. Backgrounds, techniques, themes and motifs. Iudicium, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-8912-9749-0 , p. 239.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ James King: A constellation of sources - Shuntei, Toyokuni I and the genesis of Kuniyoshi's warrior prints. In: "Andon 78", Society for Japanese Arts, March 2005, pp. 12-21.

Web links

“ Ukiyo-e-shi sōran ” (浮世 絵 師 総 覧) , “Complete bibliography of ukiyoe artists”, accessed January 20, 2012 (Japanese).