Edutainment > Kunichika: Ichikawa Danjuro Engei Hyakuban

Ichikawa Danjuro I

Biography of Kunichika Toyohara
Kyumonryu Shishin
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"The prints in the series were sumptuously printed using expensive materials and techniques." (Amy Reigle Newland)

Kunichika Toyohara was called a "forgotten master" by Amy Reigle Newland in the only Kunichika biography I know of "Time Present and Time Past". During the last years of his life Kunichika designed a series of hundred kabuki roles played by one very popular actor of the time - Ichikawa Danjuro IX. Today the series is regarded as one of Kunichika's best print works.

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One Hundred Roles of Ichikawa Danjuro IX

The series was commissioned to Kunichika by the publisher Fukuda Kamajiro together with Gusokuya Kahei in 1893. Such large series were never published as a complete set, but were launched into the market by and by - often over years. The last designs of Ichikawa Danjuro Engei Hyakuban were published in 1903, the year when Kunichika died.

What I like about the series is the vitality and the dynamic of the designs. They are not so stereotype in posture and appearance as for instance some of Kunisada's actor prints.

Kunichika and Yoshitoshi

Ichikawa Danjuro II

Kunichika's Masculine Ideal
Priest Mongaku
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"Ichikawa Danjuro Engei Hyakuban" has some analogies to another famous series of woodblock prints of the Meiji period, the One Hundred Aspects of the Moon by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka (1839-1892). Common bonds are the "magical" number of hundred single sheets, both series are late works of their masters, but believed to be among their best. And both, Kunichika and Yoshitoshi passed away before the last designs could be published. Both artists were by the way rather retrograde in their attitude towards modernity in the Meiji era.

Amy Reigle Newland about the Series

Amy Reigle Newland, the author of the book "Time Present and Time Past. Images of a Forgotten Master", emphasizes the importance of this series (see page 25/26). this series:

"During the 1880s and 1890s, Kunichika was one of a handful of woodblock printmakers still devoted to actor portraiture. While his best-known pieces from this period are triptychs, Kunichika produced some outstanding pieces of single-sheet portraits, such as the One hundred roles of Ichikawa Danjuro IX (Ichikawa Danjuro engei hyakuban) and One hundred roles of Baiko (Baiko kyakushi no uchi). Like Kunisada's set of 'large-head' portraits, Kunichika's two series may be regarded as 'monuments to his (Kunichika's) career'. Whilst Kunisada attempted an overview of all the greatest actors of the age, Kunichika's two series focus on the kabuki doyens, Ichikawa Danjuro IX and Onoe Kikugoro V."

Who was Ichikawa Danjuro?

Ichikawa Danjuro III

Meiji Period
Watonai
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Ichikawa Danjuro is the name of a lineage of famous kabuki actors from the Ichikawa family that goes back to 1693 and still exists in our times. The name of Ichikawa Danjuro could only be taken by one person at the same time - just like the title of yokozuna (grand champion) for sumo wrestlers in Japan.

Holders of the "Ichikawa Danjuro" title were usually family members by birth. But someone could also get the title by being adopted into the family.

The actor shown by Kunichika in One Hundred Roles of Ichikawa Danjuro was the ninth in the lineage. He was born in 1838 and held the title from 1874 until his death in 1903. Ichikawa Danjuro IX was the most popular kabuki actor during the Meiji period. He is regarded as paramount in keeping the traditional kabuki theater as a prosperous art form during the difficult times of Japan's westernization and modernization.

Kunichika Toyohara (1835-1900) - the Printmaker

Ichikawa Danjuro IV

The Kabuki Theater
Bingo Saburo Writing a Poem
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Kunichika's woodblock prints are in my view at least as good as those by Kunisada (1786-1865) and better than many of the sloppily made mass prints by Hiroshige (1797-1858) during his late years.

But Kunichika was active at a time when the appreciation of ukiyo-e among the Japanese population was massively dwindling. While ukiyo-e was the only medium to publish books or images during the Edo period (until 1868), the following Meiji period (1868-1912) replaced the old art of woodblock prints by more efficient Western techniques like photography or lithography. Ukiyo-e designers, carvers, printers and publishers had a tough time to make a living.

Kunichika as a Personality

Kunichika was a bohemian type. He liked to see himself as the tough macho guy, a hard drinker and successful womanizer. But he also had a passion for the old kabuki theater. And he was a hard worker when it came to making woodblock prints. Contemporaries report how he made sketches during kabuki rehearsals directly on the stage. He was concentrated and nothing could distract him from making his sketches.

In all Kunichika biographies you can usually find one citation that comes from one of Kunichika's contemporaries and may characterize him well.

"Drinking, women, kabuki and making woodblock prints. That was his life. And for him it was just fine."

Gallery

Here are a few more examples from One Hundred Roles of Ichikawa Danjuro IX (Ichikawa Danjuro Engei Hyakuban).

Ichikawa Danjuro V

Kabuki
Boatman Tombei
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Ichikawa Danjuro VI

Revenge of the Soga Brothers
Soga Goro
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Ichikawa Danjuro VII

Saigo Takamori
Saigo Takamori
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Ichikawa Danjuro VIII

Meiji Prints
Fox Lady Kuzunoha
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Ichikawa Danjuro IX

One Hundred Aspects of the Moon
Oboshi Yuranosuke
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Ichikawa Danjuro X

Yositoshi Taiso - Biography
Kumagai Naozane
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Dieter Wanczura
(August 2009)

Literature source used for this article about Kunichika Toyohara

Amie Reigle Newland, "Time present and time past - Images of a forgotten master - Toyohara Kunichika 1835-1900", Hotei Publishing, Leiden, 1999, ISBN 90-74822-08-11-8.

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