Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) Japanese, Erotic Shunga Woodblock. Depicts a man and woman in the midst of a field, enjoying themselves. Kanji throughout the image. A label on the back from Carolyn Staley Fine Japanese Prints gives attribution, title (Station 37: Akasaka), and information about the series, size, and price. 

Overall Size: 13 x 14 in. 

Sight Size: 4 x 5 1/2 in. 

Born in the Honjo district of Edo in 1786 as Kunisada Tsunoda, Utagawa Kunisada’s family owned a small ferryboat service, and although his father, an amateur poet, died when Kunisada was a child, the family business provided him financial security and the ability to pursue the arts. During his childhood he showed considerable promise in painting and drawing, and thanks to his familial ties with literary and theatrical circles he spent a great deal of time studying actor portraits before being admitted to study under Toyokuni I, the head of the Utagawa school, at the age of 14. His works embodied the traditional subjects of his master such as kabuki, bijin (beautiful women), shunga (erotic prints), and historical prints, with his first known prints dating to 1807 and his first full illustrated book to 1808. Successful throughout his life, he expanded his masters’ ukiyo-e style into new formats, credited with innovative diptych, triptych, and polyptych designs that increased the popularity of woodblock prints exponentially. He often signed his works “Kunisada” or “Ichiyusai,” sometimes with the studio names of Gototei and Kochoro affixed, and in 1844 he adopted the name of his teacher and became Toyokuni III, since Toyokuni’s son-in-law, Toyoshige, had adopted the gō earlier and became Toyokuni II. Kunisada passed away in 1865 in the very same neighborhood where he was born.

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