Utagawa Toyokuni I

Born 1769, in Edo (now Tokyo); died 1825.

Print artist.

Toyokuni was the son of Kurohashi Gorobei, a doll maker. While still very young, he was placed under Toyoharu (1735-1814) as an apprentice, and by 1789 he had started a rich, rewarding career. At first, his work was rather impersonal, deriving from Utamaro and Kiyonaga. By 1793, however, he came into his own with his actor prints from the series Portrayals of Actors on Stage (Yakusha butai no sugata-e), which were published in luxurious editions by Izumiya Ichibei. These prints appeared almost at the same time as those of Sharaku (1794-1795), yet Toyokuni's were quite different: his lines were less supple, his facial expressions less pronounced but more angular, and in general his prints were clearer and simpler, and often quite lacking in emotion. Then, in about 1797, he did a series of bust portraits in which the actors were placed in exaggerated poses, their fixed expressions accentuated by clever make-up (which would assume increasing importance and soon give the actors a stereotyped appearance). The theatre would remain Toyokuni's favourite topic, to the point that even when depicting geishas he would draw them in the favourite poses of popular actors. By the start of the new century, his style crystallised into the canon for the Utagawa School, formulaic depictions that would be perpetuated by his disciples and that would degenerate into the standard 19th-century beauty, although even the later prints have some value as documents of late Edo period costume.

"TOYOKUNI I." In Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/benezit/B00184721 (accessed May 8, 2012).