Lit. Utagawa school. The most prolific school of
*ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists in the
late Edo period. The founder of the school, Utagawa Toyoharu
歌川豊春 (1735-1814) produced prints of beautiful women *bijinga 美人画 and actor portraits *yakusha-e 役者絵, but he became particularly famous for landscapes depicted in the western
perspective *uki-e 浮絵. The prosperity of the Utagawa school was established by his followers
Toyokuni 豊国 (1769-1825) and Toyohiro 豊広 (1765?-1829). The great painter Toyokuni
caught the atmosphere of the time and successfully created a new, eclectic style
in prints of beautiful women and actors in which balance and harmony were important.
Although the Utagawa school is not highly regarded by modern scholars, the Utagawa
style boomed among its contemporaries. The school was so popular that it attracted
many disciples. Among Toyokuni's followers, Kunisada 国貞 (Toyokuni 3 三代豊国; 1786-1865),
who was known as a painter of actor portraits, and Kuniyoshi 国芳 (1797-1861), known
as a painter of *musha-e 武者絵 (warrior prints) were the most successful. Kuniyoshi was also popular as a
charicaturist. Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (also known as Andou 安藤 Hiroshige, 1797-1858) was
a disciple of Toyohiro. Hiroshige was best known for landscape prints, as represented
by "Fifty-three Stations on the Toukaidou" *Toukaidou
Gojuusantsugi 東海道五十三次 (1833), and his gentle, intimate style, which
was a marked contrast to the dramatic, structural paintings of his rival, Katsushika
Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849). Thus, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, and Hiroshige (especially
after Hokusai's death) monopolized actor prints, warrior prints, and landscape
prints respectively, and the Utagawa school enjoyed its heyday in the world of ukiyo-e in the first half of 19c. Around the mid-19c, at the bakumatsu 幕末 period, the Utagawa school artists worked on prints
of contemporary townscapes, which were considered to be the forerunner of illustrations
for newspapers. Being well versed in western painting techniques, Kuniyoshi and
his followers created a new genre called *yokohama-e 横浜絵, prints depicting the scenery of Yokohama in which western objects and fashion
figured these having become popular after the opening of its port in 1859. Among
the followers of Kuniyoshi, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年 (1839-92) and Kawanabe Gyousai
河鍋暁斎 (1831-89) are well-known. The lineage of the Utagawa school continues in
the present, and Yoshitoshi's followers include Kaburagi Kiyokata 鏑木清方 (1878-1972)
and Itou Shinsui 伊東深水 (1898-1972).
Lineage of the Utagawa school.
Utagawa
Toyoharu 歌川豊春 ---Toyohiro 豊広 --- Hiroshige 広重 --Toyokuni 豊国 --- Toyoshige 豊重
(Toyokuni 2) -- Kunisada 国貞 (Toyokuni 3) -- Kunimasa 国政 -- Kuniyasu 国安 -- Kuniyoshi
国芳 --- Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年 - Kunitora 国虎 - Kawanabe Gyousai 河鍋暁斎 --- Mizuno
Toshikata 水野年方 --- Kaburagi Kiyokata 鏑木清方 --- Itou Shinsui 伊東深水. |
