Early Nineteenth-Century Actor Prints and the Emergence of the Utagawa School

Kunisada, Modori Kago

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Tokugawa government (bakufu) had abandoned most of the measures it had tried to implement during the so-called “Kansei Reforms” of 1787-1793. There was also a gradual easing up of sumptuary regulations and censorship. The ensuing decades saw the return of a thriving urban culture that included the kabuki theatres and licensed quarters, as well as an expanding market for books (almost always illustrated) and prints. These were the heady days of the Bunka (1804-1818) and Bunsei (1818-1830) eras, which in Japanese cultural history are often taken together as the golden age of Edo urban culture. Indeed, it was during these years that ukiyo-e became a truly popular art (Kobayashi 92).

Kunidsada, Ichikawa Danjūrō VII in Act 10 of Chūshingura

This was also a golden age of the kabuki theatre, which not only produced stage versions of many of the works of popular fiction, but could also rely on its own playwrights, such as Tsuruya Namboku III (1755-1829), who had major successes with plays such as Sakura-hime Azuma Bunshō (Lady Sakura: Documents from the East, 1817), and Tōkaidō Yostuya Kaidan (Ghost Story of Yotsuya, 1825), a spin-off of the perennial favorite, Kanadehon Chūshingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers).

Star actors of the time included Matsumoto Kōshirō V, Iwai Hanshirō V, and Ichikawa Danjūrō VII, who in 1832 retook his previous name (Ebizō) so that his son could succeed to the title of Danjūrō VIII.  Danjūrō VII’s relinquishment of the prestigious name in no way meant his retirement from the kabuki world, however. It was while acting for the second time as Ebizō that he began creating the canon known as the “Eighteen Kabuki Favorites” (Kabuki Jūhachiban), which includes the popular plays Sukeroku and Shibaraku, as well as Kanjinchō, a kabuki version of the Noh play Ataka, first staged in 1840. 

Kunisada (1786-1865), who eventually took the title of Toyokuni III, was arguably the most popular and certainly the most prolific of print designers during the nineteenth-century. Like his master, he specialized in actor prints, though he also produced bijinga, “samurai pictures” (musha-e), and even landscapes.  He also worked on a number of collaborative series with artists such as Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige I and Hiroshige II. Kunisada’s students include Sadafusa, Sadahide, Kunisada II, and Kunichika.

Ashiyuki, The Osaka Actors Utaemon and Ebijūrō

Kuniyoshi and his students represent another line in the evolution of the Utagawa school. Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), like Kunisada, studied under the Tokyokuni I. He was thus well-schooled in turning out actor prints in the Utagawa style. He is best known, however, for his prints of historical and legendary heroes. Eventually he developed a style of his own, which was continued and in some cases further developed by his students, who include Yoshitoshi, Yoshitora, Yoshiiku, Yoshikazu, and Yoshimori. 

The title of the Osaka print to the left, Isse Ichidai, indicates that this was a retirement or career finale performance. Ichikawa Ebijūrō I (1777-1827) acted under that name 1815-1827; Utaemon III (1778-1838) used his acting name 1791-1835. Since Ebijūrō I died in 1827, if this was his final performance with Utaemon, it would have occurred no later than that year. The British Museum dates this print to 1825. This is probably based on records of the play’s performance. According to the online data base Nihon Engeki Kōgyō Nenpyō, the play Hikosan Gongen Chigai no Sukedachi was performed at the Kado-za in Osaka in the third month of 1825.