Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)



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last updated:

new pictures: 11/01/21

 

new information: 12/08/20
 
Musha-e clearly have not been the main field of Kunisada artistic efforts and only a very few are published. Only about 150 designs are in my catalog, but I´m quite sure he designed some hundreds more. In the public meaning musha-e are joined with the name of Kuniyoshi whose prints have been collected by western collectors over decades. Maybe some day more of Kunisada´s musha-e will be found in Japanese or in unpublished western collections.

Mr. James King states: "Although the contribution by Utawaga Kunisada to musha-e are often incorrectly assumed to post-date Kuniyoshi´s Suikoden designs (published in 1827), Kunisada, who was twelve years older than his rival Kuniyoshi, made many important warrior prints in the 1810s and early 1820s ..." (Andon 78, A constellation of sources - Shuntei, Toyokuni I and the genesis of Kuniyoshi´s warrior prints, Society for Japanese Arts, March 2005).

For most prints shown on this site the dating can only be made with a range of +/- five years, so it´s not clear whether they are pre or post Kuniyoshi. But for some certain prints the dating before Kuniyoshi is absolutely evident because of the special writing of the signatures.

And it is also evident that Kunisada designed all the prints (except the latest, Toyokuni signed prints) not in his own typical style (or an Utagawa school style) but in the Katsukawa school style. At any case the hero prints are designed in this style. For the historic battle scenes I can´t confirm this because I have seen to less others.

 For some prints I do have only bad files. Sorry but for this case the bad files are better than nothing.

If you have matching informations and files or better files please let me know and send them to: horstgraebner@kunisada.de

 

battle scenes:

   

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 


Chūshingura triptychs:

Series “Kanadehon Chūshingura“ (仮名手本忠臣蔵)
   
   
   
   
other triptychs 
   
   
   
   
   
 


hero prints (no series ?):
 
     

 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
   
 
 
 
hero prints from series:

Pictures of Grappling:
Battle Tales of the Han and Chu:
 

untitled series:
   
The Loyal Retainers Who Achieved Revenge:
     
A mirror of our country's renown heroes:
 
Popular actors as the 108 heroes of the Suikoden, one by one:
     
Banners for Parlor Decorations: Five Brightly Colored Banners:
 
 
untitled series (pub. Moritaya Hanzō)
 
 

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references

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) - series and prints