Utagawa Kunisada II

Utagawa Kunisada II 二代  歌川国貞 (1823-1880)   

PROFILE

Kunisada II was a disciple of the highly influential Utagawa School, and as such, took the name of his teacher, Utagawa Kunisada I (1786–1865). He later adopted the name of Toyokuni, the school’s founder, and thus became Toyokuni IV. He often found his motifs in the kabuki theater, pleasure quarters and tea-houses. After Japanese printmaking was introduced in Europe in the late 1860s, his works caught the attention of a Western public.

Van Gogh's Japonisme and the Critics' Bias

While Van Gogh may have loved Kunisada II's prints, European critics, up until fairly recently, felt otherwise.  Writing in 1917 in his seminal work Chats on Japanese Prints, Arthur Davison Ficke wrote:

His prints, largely executed in cheap analine colours, set one's teeth on edge with some of the most shrieking discords that I have ever encountered. There exists an unfortunate collector who proudly brought back from Japan one hundred and nineteen triptychs by this artist.1

And as late as the mid-1970s, Laurance Roberts, echoing Ficke, wrote, "His prints, largely done in garish aniline colors, represent the tasteless exaggerated style of late ukiyo-e."2

BIOGRAPHY

Family name: Takenouchi 竹内.  Given name: Munehisa 宗久.  Art surname: Utagawa 歌川.  Artist names: Kunimasa III 国政 三代, Kunisada II 国定 二代 from 1851;  Toyokuni IV 豊国四 代from 1870.  Art names (gō): Baidō 梅堂, Hōraisha 宝来舎, Ichijusai (c.1844-54) 一寿斎, Ichiyōsai 一陽斎, Baichōrō (c. 1852-1870) 梅蝶楼, Kōchōrō 香蝶楼.

Not many details are known about Kunisada II who was born in 1823.  He became a student of Kunisada I 歌川国貞 (1786-1865) and signed his earliest works as Kunimasa (III). Kunisada’s II’s earliest known prints date to 1844. In 1846, Kunisada adopted Kunisada II after he married his oldest daughter Osuzu. The name change from Kunimasa III to Kunisada II occurred in late 1850 or early 1851, at about the same time when Kunisada bequeathed his house in Kameido to Kunisada II.

Kunisada II continued in the style of Kunisada, but never reached the level of success that his teacher did. He mostly designed actor prints but was also active in other subjects like beautiful women, Genji prints, or erotica, sometimes in collaboration with other artists.

With nearly 200 different titles, Kunisada II was a prolific book illustrator. Just over forty print series by him are known. He worked for almost fifty publishers, in particular Tsutaya Kichikzō. The popularity of his work decreased dramatically in the early Meiji period. He continued as head of the Utagawa School with a few students such as Kunisada III (Utagawa Kunimasa IV 1848-1920) and changed his name in late 1870, again like his teacher Kunisada did before him, calling himself now Toyokuni (IV). However, he designed only few prints or illustrated books in the 1870s and seems to have stopped completely after 1874.

Age 58, Kunisada II passed away on July 20, 1880. His posthumous Buddhist name is Sankōin Hōkokujutei Shinji and, like Toyokuni and Kunisada, he is buried at the Banshōin Kōunji.1

Signatures and Seals of the Artist (a sampling)

Prints in Collection

[BELOW PRINTS WITH ASTERISK GIFTED TO THE JORDAN SCHNITZER MUSEUM OF ART, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON]

click on thumbnail for print details