Kunisada (Toyokuni III) | View of a storm
歌川国貞 Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865)
夕立景
View of a storm
1822-25
木版画 | 三联续绘-纵绘大判 | 39cm x 25.8cm x 3
Woodblock-print | Triptych Oban tate-e triptych | 39cm x 25.8cm x 3
早期版次；整体品相非常好；部分颜料褪色
Fine impression; minor fading; otherwise very good condition
PRICE ON REQUEST
夏日的午后，天色最难捉摸。原本晴朗的天空，有时会霎时间变暗，紧接着便下起一阵又促又急的雷暴雨。此种夏季独有的天气被称作“夕立”，曾被许多日本画家精心描绘，是浮世绘画作中非常常见的主题，本作就是其中最独特鲜明的作品之一。
雷暴雨来得是那样的快，快到平铺在地上的草席瞬间被掀翻，快到走廊上的女子来不及穿上木屐，慌忙光着脚扶起门板避雨。与此同时，一道贯穿全画的闪电伴着疾风闯进屋内，吹得蚊香炉冒起黑烟滚滚，吓得年幼的孩子跌跌撞撞地拽住大人的衣带。原本四四方方的青纱帐也被这强大的力量扯得松脱，而在它其中，还躲着一位被吓得不轻的姑娘：只见她双手捂着耳朵，神情紧张，半个身子还露在外边，活像一条误入渔网的小鱼儿。国贞用极为夸张的漫画风格，看似在大肆渲染着夕立中人们的狼狈，实则一举一动依然极具美感，犹如一场精心排练的舞台剧正上演至冲突集中爆发的一刻，不由得使观者大呼过瘾。
这幅画虽然以“夕立”为背景，但真正的焦点却是画中的女性形象。国贞通过风暴的猛烈与混乱，巧妙地刻画了三位女性面对雷暴雨的反应，不仅展现了人物的情感张力，也凸显了他在美人绘领域的独特才华。
青年时期，国贞以“五渡亭”为画号，此时正值他创作的黄金期。除了在役者绘领域展现出高超的造诣外，他在美人绘方面也创作了许多精彩的代表作。1807年，国贞创作了第一幅美人绘，描绘了吉原的游女，并以此为单一主题持续创作美人画，直至他选用新画号“五渡亭”。
进入“五渡亭”时期后，国贞的创作视角不再局限于吉原的游女，而是转向社会各个阶层的女性。他仔细观察她们在生活中的一举一动、神态表情，并将这些细节忠实地还原到画面之中。通过对平民女子生活场景的艺术加工，国贞将女性真实的“美”与“魅”表现得淋漓尽致。而此幅极具动感的三联美人画，便是他早期美人画的代表作之一。
The storm has come so quickly, so fiercely, that there was little time for the beautiful women to prepare. One rushes in a panic to put an exterior wall panel in place before everyone gets drenched; another, her kimono haphazardly opened, fastens the mosquito netting with a running child at her feet; a third cowers within the netting itself, covering her ears against the thunder – a remarkable feat of the printers’ art.
The lightning comes shooting jaggedly into the house.
This early Kunisada triptych depicting the lives of women has both comedy and drama. It is extremely rare and reminiscent of one of his most famous triptychs, “A Sudden Shower on the way home from Fuji Festival.” Both feature a sudden, furious storm, running bijin, subjects covering their ears against the thunder, and lightning coming menacingly into the foreground.
Kunisada’s early beauty prints mostly featured prostitues from the Yoshiwara in Edo, but after he took the name Gototei (五渡亭) in 1809, his range expanded to women from all walks of life. This is one of them.
This print may actually be seen as a sequal to “A Sudden Shower on the way home from Fuji Festival,” being as it was produced a few years later. The purple cartouche simply says, “A View of a Storm.” There is no hint that it is part of a larger series. But it is full of dynamic similarities. We can almost feel the summer humidity rising as the energy explodes in the sky. Chaos is everywhere — smoke billows from a brazzier, getta sandals and a fan and tossed on the floor, a tatami mat is sent flying.
What a wonderful vision it is.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
歌川国貞 Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865)
夕立景
View of a storm
1822-25
木版画 | 三联续绘-纵绘大判 | 39cm x 25.8cm x 3
Woodblock-print | Triptych Oban tate-e triptych | 39cm x 25.8cm x 3
早期版次；整体品相非常好；部分颜料褪色
Fine impression; minor fading; otherwise very good condition
PRICE ON REQUEST
夏日的午后，天色最难捉摸。原本晴朗的天空，有时会霎时间变暗，紧接着便下起一阵又促又急的雷暴雨。此种夏季独有的天气被称作“夕立”，曾被许多日本画家精心描绘，是浮世绘画作中非常常见的主题，本作就是其中最独特鲜明的作品之一。
雷暴雨来得是那样的快，快到平铺在地上的草席瞬间被掀翻，快到走廊上的女子来不及穿上木屐，慌忙光着脚扶起门板避雨。与此同时，一道贯穿全画的闪电伴着疾风闯进屋内，吹得蚊香炉冒起黑烟滚滚，吓得年幼的孩子跌跌撞撞地拽住大人的衣带。原本四四方方的青纱帐也被这强大的力量扯得松脱，而在它其中，还躲着一位被吓得不轻的姑娘：只见她双手捂着耳朵，神情紧张，半个身子还露在外边，活像一条误入渔网的小鱼儿。国贞用极为夸张的漫画风格，看似在大肆渲染着夕立中人们的狼狈，实则一举一动依然极具美感，犹如一场精心排练的舞台剧正上演至冲突集中爆发的一刻，不由得使观者大呼过瘾。
这幅画虽然以“夕立”为背景，但真正的焦点却是画中的女性形象。国贞通过风暴的猛烈与混乱，巧妙地刻画了三位女性面对雷暴雨的反应，不仅展现了人物的情感张力，也凸显了他在美人绘领域的独特才华。
青年时期，国贞以“五渡亭”为画号，此时正值他创作的黄金期。除了在役者绘领域展现出高超的造诣外，他在美人绘方面也创作了许多精彩的代表作。1807年，国贞创作了第一幅美人绘，描绘了吉原的游女，并以此为单一主题持续创作美人画，直至他选用新画号“五渡亭”。
进入“五渡亭”时期后，国贞的创作视角不再局限于吉原的游女，而是转向社会各个阶层的女性。他仔细观察她们在生活中的一举一动、神态表情，并将这些细节忠实地还原到画面之中。通过对平民女子生活场景的艺术加工，国贞将女性真实的“美”与“魅”表现得淋漓尽致。而此幅极具动感的三联美人画，便是他早期美人画的代表作之一。
The storm has come so quickly, so fiercely, that there was little time for the beautiful women to prepare. One rushes in a panic to put an exterior wall panel in place before everyone gets drenched; another, her kimono haphazardly opened, fastens the mosquito netting with a running child at her feet; a third cowers within the netting itself, covering her ears against the thunder – a remarkable feat of the printers’ art.
The lightning comes shooting jaggedly into the house.
This early Kunisada triptych depicting the lives of women has both comedy and drama. It is extremely rare and reminiscent of one of his most famous triptychs, “A Sudden Shower on the way home from Fuji Festival.” Both feature a sudden, furious storm, running bijin, subjects covering their ears against the thunder, and lightning coming menacingly into the foreground.
Kunisada’s early beauty prints mostly featured prostitues from the Yoshiwara in Edo, but after he took the name Gototei (五渡亭) in 1809, his range expanded to women from all walks of life. This is one of them.
This print may actually be seen as a sequal to “A Sudden Shower on the way home from Fuji Festival,” being as it was produced a few years later. The purple cartouche simply says, “A View of a Storm.” There is no hint that it is part of a larger series. But it is full of dynamic similarities. We can almost feel the summer humidity rising as the energy explodes in the sky. Chaos is everywhere — smoke billows from a brazzier, getta sandals and a fan and tossed on the floor, a tatami mat is sent flying.
What a wonderful vision it is.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
歌川国貞 Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865)
夕立景
View of a storm
1822-25
木版画 | 三联续绘-纵绘大判 | 39cm x 25.8cm x 3
Woodblock-print | Triptych Oban tate-e triptych | 39cm x 25.8cm x 3
早期版次；整体品相非常好；部分颜料褪色
Fine impression; minor fading; otherwise very good condition
PRICE ON REQUEST
夏日的午后，天色最难捉摸。原本晴朗的天空，有时会霎时间变暗，紧接着便下起一阵又促又急的雷暴雨。此种夏季独有的天气被称作“夕立”，曾被许多日本画家精心描绘，是浮世绘画作中非常常见的主题，本作就是其中最独特鲜明的作品之一。
雷暴雨来得是那样的快，快到平铺在地上的草席瞬间被掀翻，快到走廊上的女子来不及穿上木屐，慌忙光着脚扶起门板避雨。与此同时，一道贯穿全画的闪电伴着疾风闯进屋内，吹得蚊香炉冒起黑烟滚滚，吓得年幼的孩子跌跌撞撞地拽住大人的衣带。原本四四方方的青纱帐也被这强大的力量扯得松脱，而在它其中，还躲着一位被吓得不轻的姑娘：只见她双手捂着耳朵，神情紧张，半个身子还露在外边，活像一条误入渔网的小鱼儿。国贞用极为夸张的漫画风格，看似在大肆渲染着夕立中人们的狼狈，实则一举一动依然极具美感，犹如一场精心排练的舞台剧正上演至冲突集中爆发的一刻，不由得使观者大呼过瘾。
这幅画虽然以“夕立”为背景，但真正的焦点却是画中的女性形象。国贞通过风暴的猛烈与混乱，巧妙地刻画了三位女性面对雷暴雨的反应，不仅展现了人物的情感张力，也凸显了他在美人绘领域的独特才华。
青年时期，国贞以“五渡亭”为画号，此时正值他创作的黄金期。除了在役者绘领域展现出高超的造诣外，他在美人绘方面也创作了许多精彩的代表作。1807年，国贞创作了第一幅美人绘，描绘了吉原的游女，并以此为单一主题持续创作美人画，直至他选用新画号“五渡亭”。
进入“五渡亭”时期后，国贞的创作视角不再局限于吉原的游女，而是转向社会各个阶层的女性。他仔细观察她们在生活中的一举一动、神态表情，并将这些细节忠实地还原到画面之中。通过对平民女子生活场景的艺术加工，国贞将女性真实的“美”与“魅”表现得淋漓尽致。而此幅极具动感的三联美人画，便是他早期美人画的代表作之一。
The storm has come so quickly, so fiercely, that there was little time for the beautiful women to prepare. One rushes in a panic to put an exterior wall panel in place before everyone gets drenched; another, her kimono haphazardly opened, fastens the mosquito netting with a running child at her feet; a third cowers within the netting itself, covering her ears against the thunder – a remarkable feat of the printers’ art.
The lightning comes shooting jaggedly into the house.
This early Kunisada triptych depicting the lives of women has both comedy and drama. It is extremely rare and reminiscent of one of his most famous triptychs, “A Sudden Shower on the way home from Fuji Festival.” Both feature a sudden, furious storm, running bijin, subjects covering their ears against the thunder, and lightning coming menacingly into the foreground.
Kunisada’s early beauty prints mostly featured prostitues from the Yoshiwara in Edo, but after he took the name Gototei (五渡亭) in 1809, his range expanded to women from all walks of life. This is one of them.
This print may actually be seen as a sequal to “A Sudden Shower on the way home from Fuji Festival,” being as it was produced a few years later. The purple cartouche simply says, “A View of a Storm.” There is no hint that it is part of a larger series. But it is full of dynamic similarities. We can almost feel the summer humidity rising as the energy explodes in the sky. Chaos is everywhere — smoke billows from a brazzier, getta sandals and a fan and tossed on the floor, a tatami mat is sent flying.
What a wonderful vision it is.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) (1786–1865)
In the pantheon of Japanese woodblock prints, some names loom large and legendary – Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro, to name a few. Each in his own way revolutionized his genre. But for sheer productivity and quality and longevity, no one rivals the great Utagawa Kunisada. He was without a doubt the most prolific Ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, and the quality of his work was remarkably high throughout his lifetime.
His life caught the tail end of the early golden age of Ukiyo-e and ended during the final, halcyon days of Japanese woodblock printmaking. His legacy lived on with many famous pupils. In between, he produced countless designs of bijin (beautiful women), warriors, legends, Surimono, more bijin, the Tale of Genji, actors, landscapes, Shunga, fan prints and even more bijin. He led the Utagawa School, home to Hiroshige among others, for nearly 40 years.
His work embraced a subtle elegance and simplicity, a timelessness, when other woodblock artists often favored busy energy. Except when it didn’t. (Read on.)
He was born in 1796 and always had a steady income from his family’s ferry business – making him unusual in the world of Ukiyo-e, where so many struggled to make ends meet. He became a student of Toyokuni when he was 15. The master gave him the name Kunisada, using the tradition of a teacher starting a student’s name with the end of his own.
After getting his start doing book designs, Kunisada saw his first major successes in the 1820s. His initial specialties were bijin and warriors, as well as erotic books. He often put his subjects in well-drawn landscapes but rarely produced pure landscapes themselves.
One example of this occurred in the early 1830s when, reacting to the runaway success of Hiroshige’s Great Tokaido series, he began his own series that copied Hiroshige’s designs but placed a beautiful woman in the foreground. While Hiroshige’s prints were oban yoko-e (horizontal oban prints), Kunisada’s “copies” were smaller chuban-size prints, meaning two could be cut from a single oban-sized sheet. These little prints were phenomenally successful – as successful at least as Hiroshige’s – and eventually Kunisada was publishing his little Tokaido prints ahead of Hiroshige’s, and thus designing his own background landscapes.
Kunisada would later produce the “two-brush” Tokaido series with Hiroshige in the 1850s, in which he drew figures in the foreground while Hiroshige supplied beautiful little landscapes behind them. This was one of several notable woodblock print collaborations during his lifetime.
By then, Kunisada had taken the name Toyokuni III, to honor his master. (Toyokuni II had already been taken by Toyoshige, though Kunisada didn’t acknowledge the legitimacy. But that’s another story for another day.)
He kept going and going. In fact, in his long life, 1852 was his most productive year. His design skills were later matched by new technologies in woodblock prints, and some of his final series feature spectacular and intricate production, such as “Lasting Impressions of a Later Genji Collection” in 1859-61 and “A Contest of Magic Scenes by Toyokuni” in 1861-4. Okay – this series was not subtle: It featured over-the-top designs of Kabuki actors with fabled and ghostly beasts. Double-printing, mica, burnishing, raised printing, heavy paper, complex bokashi – no expense was spared for these deluxe editions.
Kunisada was generous with his students, many of whom went on to great success, including Kunichika, Kunisada II, Sadahide, and Kunihisa II. This last pupil, who among other projects designed the in-set landscapes in Kunisada’s wonderful “100 Famous Sights in Edo Matched with Beautiful Women” in 1857-1858, was a rarity among Ukiyo-e artists – a woman.
Kunisada died in 1865, just three years before the end of the Tokugawa epoch, leaving behind a body of work unmatched in his time.
Don’t believe me? Checkout The Kunisada Project. It’s all there. Just make sure you have some time.
Citation: Research for this brief biography included “Japanese Woodblock Prints” by Andreas Marks (Tuttle; 2010), among other sources.