Utagawa Kokunimasa

Utagawa Kokunimasa 歌川小国政 (1874 – 1944)

BIOGRAPHY

Sources: Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints:1900 – 1975, Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, University of Hawaii. 1992, p. 164; The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing Company, 2005, Volume 2, p. 503, Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks 1680-1900, Andreas Marks, Tuttle Publishing, 2010, p. 176; Japan wikipedia entry https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%8C%E5%B7%9D%E5%9B%BD%E6%94%BF_%285%E4%BB%A3%E7%9B%AE%29 [accessed 12-25-23]

There is confusion about the true identity of this artist who may be credited with work belonging to two different artists, the second of which may have signed his work Kunimasa V (which appears on a few prints in 1891.) What most sources agree on is that he was born in 1874 and was the eldest son of Utagawa Kunimasa IV (1848-1920), who was also known as Kunisada III, Baidō Hōsai, Baidō Kunimasa and Toyokuni V.) In addition to Kokunimasa, meaning "Kunimasa Junior," he used the gō (artist names) Baidō 楳堂 and Ryūkei or Ryūa 柳蛙. His first work appears in 1889 when, if his date of birth is correct, he was only fifteen years old. He produced humorous pictures, caricatures, actor portraits, genre pictures and Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese war prints. He signed Sino-Japanese War prints Kokunimasa and his Russo-Japanese prints Ryūkei.

His death date is commonly given as 1944, but his Japanese wikepedia entry states he passed away prior to the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake.