Utagawa Kuniyasu (1793-1832) Japanese, (3) Woodblocks. Each piece depicts a kabuki actor, surrounded by kanji and hanging willows. Each comes with a blank backing sheet and matting, one of which is stamped "Original Guarantee by Sakai Co. Ltd. Established 1874 Tokyo Japan" and has "by Kuniyasu 1793-1832" written in pencil below it. 

Overall Size: 19 1/4 x 14 1/2 in. 

Sight Size: 13 3/4 x 9 1/4 in. 

Utagawa Kuniyasu was born Yasugorō in Japan in 1793. Few details are known of Kuniyasu’s personal life, but he is best known as a prolific pupil of the Utagawa school master Toyokuni. His earliest surviving work is his illustrations to the book Hanashi no momochidori, and he illustrated nearly a hundred books throughout his career, as well as creating hundreds of stand-alone prints of beauties (bijin-ga) and actors (yakusha-e) in addition to erotic works (shunga). Kuniyasu also used the art names Ippōsai and Nishikawa Yasunobu before dying abruptly at the age of 39 in 1832 of unknown causes, but works of his continued to be issued following his death, suggesting his pieces were extremely popular at the time. Today his work is held in the permanent collections of several museums worldwide, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Cooper Hewitt, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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