Morikawa Chikashige

Morikawa Chikashige 守川周重 (active 1869 - January 1882)

BIOGRAPHY

Sources: Time Present and Time Past: Images of a Forgotten Master: Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900), by Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing, 1999, p. 30-31; [The] Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing Company, 2005, p. 97; [A] Dictionary of Japanese Artists: Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints, Lacquer, Laurance P. Roberts, Weatherhill, 1976, p. 12.

A contemporary of his teacher Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900), from whom he took the first character 周 (chika) for his main art name (gō) Chikashige, the artist worked in a style similar to his teacher, specializing in three-sheet (triptych) compositions of kabuki actors and plays (yakusha-e). No information is available about his life, except that he was originally named Otojirō 音次郎 or 音治郎 (a name which occasionally appears on his prints). Even the dates of his birth and death are unknown, except for a reference to his being dead in a "Yomiuri shinbun" article written in 1900.

In addition to his actor triptychs, of which well over 100 are extant, Chikashige produced a few kaika-e, prints depicting modernization, illustrations for newspapers (nishiki-e and shinbun etoki) and for kabuki-themed novels (sashi-e), along with advertisements (hikifuda), examples of which are shown below.

In addition to the gō Chikashige, the artist used, at various times in his career, the names Ichibaisai 一梅齊 and Kichōsai 喜蝶齊 and he is sometimes referred to as Utagawa Chikashige 歌川周重, reflecting his Utagawa School lineage.