Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) Japanese, Antique Framed Woodblock. Depicts the kabuki actor Bandô Mitsugorô VI (1841-1873) in a role from 1872. Print has kanji in the upper left and right corners. Label on reverse with information about the piece and its origins. 

Overall Size: 21 3/4 x 16 in. 

Sight Size: 14 x 9 1/4 in. 

#4746 . 

Toyohara Kunichika was born Ōshima Yasohachi in June 1835 in the Kyobashi district, a merchant and artisan area of Edo, Japan. He abandoned an apprenticeship at a thread and yarn store at age ten to work at a dry goods shop, painting and sketching items. His father lost the bathhouse he ran shortly thereafter, and the family changed their surname to distance themselves from this failure, making him Arakawa Yasohachi. At twelve he began to design kabuki actor portraits for local artist Toyohara Chikanobu, who recommended him at thirteen to become a student of Tokyo’s leading print maker, Utagawa Kunisada. His deep appreciation and knowledge of kabuki drama led to his production primarily of yakusha-e, which are woodblock prints of actors and scenes from popular plays of the time. In 1854 he took the name “Kunichika,” a composite of the names of his two teachers, Kunisada and Chikanobu. In 1861 Kunichika married his first wife, Ohana, and in that same year had a daughter, Hana. He fathered two out-of-wedlock children with whom he had no contact, but remained strongly attached to Hana after divorcing Ohana. By the 1870s he was known as a womanizer and alcoholic, sometimes performing in amateur burlesque shows. He enjoyed partying with the geishas and prostitutes of the Yoshiwara district, and was a backstage regular at numerous theaters. He was constantly in debt and often borrowed money from the kabuki actors he depicted so admiringly. Only one photograph of him exists, taken in his brother’s photo shop the year before he died in Honjo in July 1900. His work is credited with bridging the tumultuous gap between the Edo and Meiji periods.