Utagawa Kunisada Toyokuni III (1786-1865) & Utagawa Hiroshige II (1826-1869) Japanese, Woodblock Print "Two Figures By a Stream." #6a on Mirviss appraisal. Suzuki Hiroshige II and Utagawa Toyokuni III from series "Edo Meisho," a collaboration between the two artists, in 1860. Depicts Akibane gawa; River Edo Courtesan with Young Boy. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Overall: 8 3/4 x 14 3/4 in. 

Sight: 13 x 9 in. 

#5061 #7j . 

Born in the Honjo district of Edo in 1786 as Kunisada Tsunoda, Utagawa Kunisada’s family owned a small ferryboat service. 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. At the age of 14 he was admitted to study under Toyokuni I, the head of the Utagawa school. His works embodied the traditional subjects of his master such as kabuki, bijin (beautiful women), shunga (erotic prints), and historical prints. His first known print dates to 1807, and his first 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. 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. 

Utagawa Kunisada Hiroshige II (1826-1869) was a Japanese designer of ukiyo-e art. Born Suzuki Chinpei in 1826, it is said that he was born to a fireman, which likely first ingratiated him to his master Hiroshige, who grew up under the same circumstances. He became apprenticed to Hiroshige under the name Shigenobu at an unknown age, and his earliest known work is the illustrations for a book called Twenty-four Paragons of Japan and China from 1849. Hiroshige II produced a large number of commissioned works in the 1850s that he signed Ichiryūsai mon (“student of Ichiryūsai,” another art name of Hiroshige I), and sometimes simply Ichiryūsai. In 1858 he married Hiroshige I’s daughter Otatsu after the master died, taking on the name and becoming head of the school, while continuing to use the names Ichiryūsai and Ryūsai. In 1865 he moved from Edo to Yokohama after his marriage dissolved, and began using the name Kisai Risshō. In his remaining years he produced a number of collaborative print series, particularly with Kunisada, who had earlier worked with Hiroshige I. His final works were mainly decorations on items intended for export, such as tea chests, kites, and lanterns. In September 1869 he died at the age of 44. Hiroshige I took on very few students, a rarity for the Utagawa school, with Hiroshige II the most successful. His work so resembled that of his master in style, subject, and signature that scholars have often confused them, with special attention paid to discrepancies in the middle lines of the kanji to help tell them apart. The confusion was compounded because a pupil of the first Hiroshige, Shigemasa, later married his master’s daughter, also named Otatsu, and began using the name Hiroshige as well; this artist is now known as Hiroshige III.

Commensurate with age.