Original woodblock print – Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865)Utagawa Toyokuni III and Utagawa Kuniteru (act. ca. 1830-1874) – “Saki kawa asagao nikki cover”咲替朝顔日記 表紙- Japan – (1850-1858)

Description

Original woodblock print – Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865)Utagawa Toyokuni III and Utagawa Kuniteru (act. ca. 1830-1874) – “Saki kawa asagao nikki cover”咲替朝顔日記 表紙- Japan – (1850-1858)

The signature says “Kuniteru  syoga”国輝書画” and ” Gaidai Toyokuni e外題豊国画”.

Good condition considering the age, trimmed margins, dirt on upper right part of right sheet.

From around Bunkyu(1861-1864), he started drawing activities under the name of the second generation Utagawa Kunitsuna(歌川国綱II) or Ichiransai Kunitsuna(一蘭斎国綱). It is believed that he changed his name to Kuniteru(国輝) around the first year of Keio (1865). In the days of Kunitsuna’s name, he was active in caricatures, street objects, and actor paintings. Since he became Kuniteru, he has drawn kaika-e such as “Tokyo Famous Places(東京名勝)” and “Tokyo Scenic Beauty(東京名所図会)”, including “Tokyo Twelve Views(東京十二景)”, a collaboration with the fourth generation Utagawa Kunimasa. There are quite a lot of railroad pictures such as “Tokyo Shiodome Railway Steam Locomotive Traffic(東京汐留鉄道蒸気車通行図)”, and the depiction of the steam locomotive is drawn by observing it much more precisely than other painters.

Utagawa Kunisada,also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III,was the most popular, prolific and commercially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan.In his own time,his reputation far exceeded that of his contemporaries,Hokusai,Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi.