Utagawa Toyokuni II.

Print from the series "The Six Jewel Rivers", title "Hanaogi from the House of Ōgi"

Utagawa Toyokuni II ( Japanese 歌 川 豊 国 二代 , ~ nidai ; * 1777 ?; † 1835 in Edo ), also known as Utagawa Toyoshige ( 歌 川 豊 重 ), was a master of Japanese color woodblock prints and painting in the ukiyo style -e who lived and worked in Edo.

life and work

Almost nothing is known about the life of Toyokuni II. His year of birth has not been established, but it is generally assumed to be 1777. His real name was Genzō 源 蔵 . It is very likely that he became an apprentice in the studio of Utagawa Toyokuni I in 1818, i.e. at the age of 41, to begin training as a woodcut artist. What is certain is that shortly before his death in 1825, he was adopted by his master , from whom he had received the stage name Toyoshige a few years earlier . Contrary to what is often stated in the literature, he was not the son-in-law of Toyokuni I, whose only daughter, Okin , married a certain Watanabe Ihei in 1826 . After the master's death, Toyoshige took over his name Toyokuni , which he used until his own death in 1835. To distinguish him from his predecessor, he was also called Hongō Toyokuni by his contemporaries , as he lived in the Haruki district in the Hongō district of Edo .

The assumption that Toyoshige is identical to Toyokuni's I pupil Kunishige is considered unlikely. The only known work of the latter is the illustration of a book from 1817. Color woodcuts signed with Toyoshige, on the other hand, are only proven from the year 1823. It is not known what profession Toyokuni II exercised before starting his training as a woodcut artist. The circumstances and motives for his adoption by Toyokuni I, with which the latter determined an unknown and relatively insignificant artist to be his successor and thus head of the Utagawa School , are unclear . There are also doubts as to whether he continued the Toyokuni name with his consent. According to a statement by a great-granddaughter of Toyokuni I, he would not have inherited the name, but appropriated it against the resistance of the rest of the family.

Print from the series "Eight Wonderful Views", "Nocturnal Rain in Oyama"

Toyokuni II's first datable print dates from 1823 and is the design for a fan leaf. Until the name change in 1825, a few more prints, mostly actor prints, appeared. Only just over 30 prints designed by him from this period are known. In the following years until 1835 he continued to design actor prints and expanded his field of activity to Bijin-e (prints of beautiful women) and Sumō -e (prints of sumō wrestlers). Occasionally he was commissioned to design surimono , musha-e (prints of famous heroes or historical events), landscape prints and the production of paintings. In the course of his work as a graphic artist, he occasionally worked as an illustrator of popular stories and novels. In total, his work comprises only a few hundred prints. His better-known works include the prints from the series "Eight Wonderful Views" ( meisho hakkei ).

His first prints were signed Toyoshige, and in 1824 they were also given the nickname Ichiryūsai ( 一 龍 斎 ). At least one print after adoption is labeled “Toyokuni sui Toyoshige ga” (German: “Drawn by Toyokuni's son Toyoshige”). After the name change in 1825, he signed for a short time with “nidaime Toyokuni ga” (German: “Drawn by Toyokuni II”), then only with “Toyokuni ga” (German: “Drawn by Toyokuni”); in 1829 he used the nickname Gosotei ( 後 素 亭 ).

Toyokuni II had some students, including Kuniharu ( 国 春 ), Kunihiro ( 国 弘 ), Kunimori I. ( 国 盛 ), Kunitomi I. ( 国 富 ), Kunitsuru I. ( 国 靏 ) and Kunishige II. ( 国 重 ). None of them had greater artistic success and only a few prints are known of each.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} A. Marks, p. 118.
2. ↑ The database of the National Institute of Japanese Literature lists 30 titles that were created with his participation, Union Catalog of Early Japanese Books. (Japanese, entry in Kanji required)
3. ↑ " ukiyo-e-shi sōran " (浮世 絵 師 総 覧) , "Complete bibliography of ukiyoe artists" (Japanese)
4. ↑ "Japanese Woodblock Print Search" file search in more than 220,000 prints (English)

literature

• Andreas Marks: Japanese Woodblock Prints. Artists, Publishers, and Masterworks 1680-1900. Tuttle, Tokyo et al. 2010, ISBN 978-4-8053-1055-7 , pp. 118 f. (English)
• Amy Reigle Newland (Ed.): The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints. 2 volumes. Hotei, Amsterdam 2003, ISBN 90-74822-65-7 , p. 504. (English)

Web links

Commons : Utagawa Toyokuni II.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Utagawa is the family name, Toyokuni II. The first name.