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Edutainment > Articles on Art > Ukiyo-e > Konishi Hirosada - ca. 1810-1864

Hirosada

Hirosada was a rather prolific ukiyo-e artists of the Osaka printmaking school - specialized on the production of actor portraits and actor scenes from kabuki plays.

He was maybe the most outstanding printmaker of the Osaka school. His activities coincide with a booming period of great popularity of the theaters. Hirosada prints are characterized by an unusually expressive and dramatic style.

From Sadahiro to Hirosada

Little is known about the artist's life. Neither the year of his birth nor of his death are for sure. In the Dictionary of Japanese Artists by Lawrence P. Roberts, Hirosada is mentioned as a pupil of Kunimasu Utagawa and with the dates of fl. 1819-1865.

Hirosada's original artist name was Sadahiro. In 1847 he changed it by reversing the first and last four characters to Hirosada. According to some sources the reason behind the name change was the intention to escape censorship. It was however not unusual for a Japanese artist to change his artist name every now and then.

Actor Portraits and Kabuki Scenes

Hirosada

Hirosada print

In the middle of the nineteenth century the Japanese kabuki theater was extremely popular. The great popularity of kabuki was a sound basis for printmakers. It gave them a continuous flux of commissions for actor prints. Westerners should know that these were no commissions for "holy" art. These were commissions for commercial art at the best. Kabuki prints had the primary goal of advertising for new theater performances, serving as theater programs and as fan posters, depicting the popular actor heroes of kabuki.

The most frequent print size used by Hirosada is the smaller Chuban format of about 7.5 x 10 inches (19 x 25.5 cm). The small format may have been used as it served best the commercial purpose of the prints.

Literature sources used for this Hirosada biography

• Richard Lane, "Images from the Floating World", Konecky & Konecky, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, 1978, ISBN 0-914427-54-7
• Laurance, P.Roberts, "A Dictionary of Japanese Artists", John Weatherhill Inc., New York, 1976

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Ukiyo-e