Kuniyoshi Exhibition Catalogue – Book Review

Royal Academy of Arts Examines Prints by Japanese Ukiyo-e Artist

Jun 3, 2009

This book explores Kuniyoshi's career by looking at his varied subject matter from Chinese hero warriors of The Water Margin to portrayals of beautiful women.

Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection was published by the Royal Academy of Arts to accompany an exhibition of the same name held at the Academy (21st March to 7th June 2009).

Utagawa Kuniyoshi – the Artist

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) taught himself to paint by copying the work of other masters such as Kitao Shigemasa (1739-1820) and Kitao Masayoshi (1764-1824). At the age of 15 he was accepted into the studio of Utagawa Kunisada, a leading ukiyo-e artist (1786-1864: known as Toyokuni III after 1844).

Ukiyo-e art, pictures of the floating world, originated in a period of Japanese history when the shoguns held political and military power in a country cut off from the rest of the world.

The art of ukoyo-e was linked to the pleasures of life, teahouses, geisha, theatres and courtesans in the city of Edo (modern day Tokyo). Many ukiyo-e prints were posters advertising brothels and theatre performances, or portraits of Kabuki actors and geisha.

Kuniyoshi was not instantly successful. In the early part of his career he produced mostly book illustrations and Kabuki actor prints. His fortune changed with the success of his first major print series entitled One of the 108 Heroes of the Popular Water Margin (ca. 1827-30). After this success Kuniyoshi became famous as a painter of tattooed Chinese and Japanese warriors in forceful poses.

Kuniyoshi went on to have many assistants and students including his two daughters. A memorial stele, erected in 1873, listed 16 deceased pupils and 25 still living.

Timothy Clark, curator of the Academy's exhibition and leading authority on Japanese art, investigates Kuniyoshi's prolific output, as many as 10,000 different prints, by examining his incredibly wide-ranging subject matter.

Kuniyoshi is renowned for his depictions of beautiful women, humorous scenes, Japanese warriors, vivid landscapes, caricatures of Kabuki actors, biographical portraits and, his favourite subject, cats. Nearly all the prints were sold at highly affordable prices. One series of 51 designs sold 408,000 copies.

Clark also explores Kuniyoshi's fascination with Western techniques of perspective and chiaroscuro (shading). The artist was an avid collector of Western pictures.

The publication opens with an explanatory essay, entitled Kuniyoshi and Censorship, which explores the strict publishing censorship laws (the Tenpo reforms) imposed in the early to mid-19th Century, the later decades of the Edo period (1600-1868), and Kuniyoshi's attitude to them.

The reforms made it illegal to sell existing stocks or to produce new single sheet prints of Kabuki actors, prostitutes and geisha, known as 'brocade pictures' (nishiki-e), as they might damage public morals. New works should be created "in accordance with [the values of] loyalty and fidelity, to promote virtue among children and women". All new works were to be presented to city officials for approval.

The remainder of the catalogue presents Kuniyoshi's most important works. There are more than 200 illustrations divided into five themes:

Each reproduction is accompanied by Clark's scholarly, but easily readable, analysis of the subject matter and the political or cultural implications of the print.

One of the most important pieces discussed by Clark, a detail of which appears as the front cover of the catalogue, is: The warrior Morozumi Masakiyo kills himself in battle, (ca. 1848). In this painting Morozumi Masakiyo (d. 1561: full name Morozumi Bungo-no-kami Kasakiyo) kills himself after his army had been blown to pieces by landmines and he himself had suffered horrendous injuries. The details of the suicide are particularly gory and not repeated in this article! Clark provides a translation of the text inscribed on this print which describes this event.

Kuniyoshi, from the Arthur R. Miller Collection is published by the Royal Academy of Art. The 300-page catalogue is available in both hardback (ISBN: 978-1-905711-40-6) and paperback (ISBN: 978-1-905711-41-3) editions, priced at £40.00 and £24.99 respectively.

Note: The image, The warrior Morozumi Masakiyo kills himself in battle, has been reproduced in this article by permission of the American Friends of the British Museum, The Arthur R. Miller Collection.

The copyright of the article Kuniyoshi Exhibition Catalogue – Book Review in Visual Art Books is owned by Frances Spiegel. Permission to republish Kuniyoshi Exhibition Catalogue – Book Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.