Utagawa KUNISADA KUNISADA. Yakusha-e. Half-length portrait of a Kabuki actor.
Utagawa KUNISADA (Toyokuni III).1786-1864
Yakusha-e. Half-length portrait of a Kabuki actor. Around 1832 - 1834
Polychrome woodcut. 381x260 mm, trimmed within margins. Sign left near the margin: “Kōchōrō Kunisada ga”. Under the signature: Artist's seal, double toshidama in red. Censor's seal: kiwame. Publisher’s mark of ōmiya Heihachi. Print pasted on support card. Some minor defects.
A fine Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print. It is probably the famous actor Ichikawa Ebij?r? I, 1777-1827. Utagawa Kunisada, also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III, was the most popular, prolific and commercially successful designer of ukiyo-ewoodblock prints in 19th-century Japan. In his own time, his reputation far exceeded that of his contemporaries, Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi.ōmiya Heihachi, Edo print publisher (Marks 413). Artists published by this house include Eisen, Eizan, Kunisada, Kuniyasu, Kuniyoshi, Sadahide, Shunkō, Shunshō II, Shuntei, Toyokuni I and Toyokuni II. There is not much known about the publisher ōmiya Heihachi apart from his location at Nihonbashi Yagenborichō. His earliest publications date to 1811 when he began to issue actor prints and prints of beautiful women.