Utagawa Kunisada II.
Utagawa Kunisada II (Japanese歌 川 国 贞 二代; * 1823, † July 20, 1880 in Edo ), also known as Utagawa Toyokuni IV (歌 川 豊 国 四 代), was a master of Japanese prints, woodblock prints and painting in the style of ukiyo -e, who lived in Edo and worked.
Life and work
About his life little is known. He was born as Takenouchi Munehisa (竹 内 宗 久). In the late 1830s he became a pupil in the studio of Kunisada I. to begin training as a woodcut artist. The exact date is not known. From Kunisada I, he was given the stage name " Kunimasa " ( III.) (国 政), with whom he signed his first, published in 1844 prints. [Note 1 ] Two years later, in 1846, he was adopted by Kunisada I., after his eldest daughter, Osuzu married. Contrary to popular belief, he signed following the adoption of his prints continued for several years with " Kunimasa ". The name change to Kunisada ( II ) was only 1850/1851, after Kunisada I. him his house in Kameido, had, transferred, in present-day municipality Kōtō in Tokyo. [Note 2] After the death Kunisada Kunisada II I. in 1865, was the formal head of the Utagawa school. Against 1869/1870, he began signing his work with Toyokuni (III ), where he I. as Kunisada the fact overlooked that already Toyoshige, the adopted son of Toyokuni I, the legitimate name Toyokuni II had done. Kunisada I was actually Toyokuni III. Kunisada II is thus the correct count Toyokuni IV Kunisada II Buried in the cemetery of Banshoin Koun -ji (万昌 院 功 运 寺) now in the district Nakano in Tokyo. His posthumous, Buddhist name was Sankōin Hōkokujutei Shinji.
Kunisada II drew in the course of his career, the templates for several thousand woodcuts. As he focused his teacher while on the designs for prints and Kabuki actor portraits, without being able to ever catch up with its success. In addition, he is still known for Genji, Bijin -e Prints and printing of sumo wrestlers. Among his greatest successes included the series The history of the heroes of the eight dogs ( Hakkenden inu no Shoshi no uchi ) and Murasaki Shikibu Genji of playing cards ( Murasaki Shikibu Genji karuta ). In addition to numerous individual papers are known by him more than 40 series. He has been working on behalf of nearly 50 different publishers. In addition, he was involved in the course of his career at the illustration of almost 200 books. His popularity with the public was the beginning of the Meiji era by dramatically so that he only got a few orders from publishers. After 1874 are of him no more work known.
In his prints, he signed to the end of 1850 with Kunimasa (III ) (国 政), then with Kunisada ( II ) (国 贞) and from 1869/1870 with Toyokuni ( IV ) (豊 国). As a nickname he used the name Baido (梅 堂), Hōraisha (宝来 舎) Ichijusai (ca. 1844-1854 ) (一 寿 斎), and Baichōrō (ca. 1852-1870 ) (梅 蝶 楼) prior to its respective artist name.
Three of his students, Kunimasa IV (国 政 四 代), Kunitsuna II (国 纲 二代) and Toyonobu (豊 宣), were successful even during the Meiji period as a woodcut artist. From other students how Kuniyuki (国 幸) or Masahisa (政 久), only a few works are detectable.