Toyohara Kunichika (豊原国周)
Kunichika TOYOHARA (1835 - 1900) was an ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints) artist who lived from the end of Edo period to Meiji period.
His main name was Arakawa, and he went by the familiar name of Yasoya. He was born as one of the two brothers, and as the second son of Tsuku Oshimaya who operated a bathhouse called Tsuku Oshimaya in Gorocho of the Kyobashi district in Edo (some mentions that the family was the landlord of a building located at 7-chome in Sanjikkenbori of the same district). His mother was Yae, the daughter of doshin police constable Sannojo ARAKAWA.
In addition to Kunichika, his artist's appellation included Ichiosai, Hoshunro, Kachoro and Itto. It is said that he came to choose TOYOHARA for his main artist name in order to always remember the debt of gratitude he owed to Chikanobu TOYOHARA.
When he was small, he was so mischievous that he drew complaints from his neighbors. But he already showed his promising talent in painting by helping a flyer shop to make andon oil lamp stands for ceremonial occasions known as "jiguchi andon," which were decorated with pun-motif illustrations (illustrations inspired by puns, a form of word play in which one finds different meanings in word pairs that sound alike [jiguchi puns], were featured on andon lamp stands. Installing these andons at crossroads during festivals became widespread, and many of these illustrations were drawn by ukiyo-e artists). After his older brother, Nagoyoshi, opened an osier (raised cloth picture) shop in the Minamidenmacho district, Kunichika studied under the artist of the Hasegawa school Chikanobu TOYOHARA to learn how to draw portraits of kabuki actors; he went on to draw original paintings for hagoita battledores (some says that he took on a job at hagoita maker Rinshun's studio). He took on a job at hagoita warehouse merchant Meirindo near Sukiya kashi riverbank area; it is said that his portraits of kabuki actors were highly appreciated.
His connection with hagoita illustration appeared to be maintained throughout his life, because it is assumed there used to be a stone monument inscribed with Kunichika's death poem at Honryu-ji Temple that read "Now that I am tired of drawing portraits of every day people, I could try drawing portrayals of Enma lord of death and oni ogres," which was founded at the initiative of oshi-e painter Kanemaru YUKAWA.
In 1848, he became a disciple of Kunisada UTAGAWA (who also referred to himself as Toyo-no-kuni III). When he was helping Toyo-no-kuni to draw a portrait of kabuki actor in 1852, he signed his name as "disciple Yasoya." In or around 1855, he started using his artist appellation of Kunichika TOYOHARA for his signature, which combined the name of his first mentor, Chikanobu TOYOHARA, and Toyo-no-kuni. In 1869, he demonstrated his skills by producing a large series of okubi-e (large-head pictures) of Kabuki actors with woodcrafter Shokichi OTA, and armor maker Kahei GUSOKUYA in Ningyocho district as publisher. He became known as "Kunichika of Kabuki actor prints" with the series, which later earned him the moniker of "Sharaku in Meiji period" from Usui KOJIMA. In the following year, he released a series of okubi-e pictures from publisher Yashichi OHASHIYA, each of which came in a set of two or three panels. In later years, he produced many prints of Kabuki actors depicted in the traditional three-quarter view style, while he also painted Kabuki actor portraits in a daring composition, featuring a single actor standing alone in waist and up view within the set of three panels. He demonstrated a unique flamboyant quality in his bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) by adding decorative elements found in hagoita battledores on top of the detailed portrayal of facial expressions.
Influenced by the popularity of photography in his time, there were commercial photographic portraits publisher of Kabuki actors known as "shashinjo" photo studio in 1870, upon which he produced woodblock prints using the shadow method, only to be proven unsuccessful. It can be said that Kunichika's portraits of Kabuki actors helped boosting the popularity of the Kabuki community, which had suffered a slump because of the Boshin War. Although Kunichika seemed to have many disciples, only Chikashige MORIKAWA and Chikanobu YOSHU flourished as well-known artists. It is said that Kunichika had such a peculiar personality that even he was aware of it. He made a habit of changing addresses and remarrying, and he moved 117 times according to himself; he bragged about his moving comparing to Hokusai who was also known for moving many times by saying, "I may not beat Hokusai in painting skills, but I beat him in the number of moving." It seems that on several occasions some publishers who wanted to commission a painting job had trouble finding his location because he constantly moved from one place to another just because he did not like the air in the neighborhood. In one episode, he was quoted as saying, "one day I moved into a place but move out of there the next day because I got sick of the place--in an extreme case, I moved three times in a day, and I simply had no choice but to stay at the third house even though I did not like it, because it was getting dark and I was too exhausted."
He changed his spouse more than 40 times, but each of the marriages did not last long. A drinker and pleasure-seeker, he spent money as soon as he earned, as if saying "money is not something you keep overnight"; in his later years he seems to have had only one kimono to wear, thus he had to ask publishers to lend him a kimono for doing "nakami" to sketch Kabuki actors appeared on stage. Still, he couldn't help but supporting people in need, and on several occasions he nonsensically gave them items that belonged to his visitors. For that reason, it is said that those dealers of Nishiki-e color woodblock print business did not bring any valuable when they visited Kunichika.
In addition, there is an episode that indicates how Kunichika worked. A publisher called FUKUDA favored theatrical plays, and published many Kabuki actor portraits. One time, a preliminary sketch of Danjuro the ninth drawn by Kunichika, which was to be used for printing woodcuts, was lost when he had Danjuro check the sketch. Danjuro asked Kunichika to draw the same sketch again because the actor liked it very much, but Kunichika refused by saying he would never draw the same thing. Kunichika might have acted from his pride as a painter, while the episode also reflects the character of him as a native of Edo. Kunichika usually received 6 or 7 yen for a drawing that came in a set of three panels, but HORICHO, a carver and publisher, apparently paid him the average of 4.50 or 5 yen.