Utagawa KUNIYOSHI KUNIYOSHI. Fashionable Living Dolls. A scene in a brothel. Diptych.
Utagawa KUNIYOSHI.1798 - 1861
Fashionable Living Dolls. A scene in a brothel. 1856-57
Polychrome woodcut. 355x485 mm, trimmed within margins. Top right the title in a red cartouche: 風流生人形 (F?ry? iki ningy?, Fashionable Living Dolls). Under, signature: Ichiy?sai Kuniyoshi ga (一勇斎 国芳 画), in two toshidama cartouches. Aratame Seal (改) and oval Zodiac Dragon (辰)/Month Seal. Year Of The Dragon: February 6, 1856 - January 25, 1857. During this time period, prints contain an aratame seal with a zodiac dragon/month seal. Publisher seal of Mikawaya Tetsugorō (Marks #329). Pasted on cardboard. Minor defects, fine specimen.
Brothel scene with a courtesan having her hair done and another with a pipe. The figure in front of a mirror is Mayuzumi, a Yoshiwara courtesan. Curious variant of a triptych with the same subject and the same title. This is one of the 185 prints of the series, Modern Select Dolls (T?sei mitate ningy? no uchi) 1855-56. This group of prints illustrates carved groups of “dolls” displayed at Kannon Temple in Asakusa. Although the word ningy? is usually translated as “dolls”, these lifelike dolls (iki-ningy?) were in fact extremely realistic life-sized clothed statues. The titles of the prints vary. Unless otherwise noted, the individual sheets are each about 14 by 10 inches (36 by 25 centimeters), a size known as ?ban, and were intended to be placed side-by-side to form diptychs and triptychs. In the triptych there is, in the sheet on the left, a seated man man with pox on his face.Utagawa Kuniyoshi was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting. He was a member of the Utagawa school.