Edutainment > Yoshitaki Utagawa - 1841-1899

Yoshitaki Utagawa I

Japanese Prints - Home
Nakamura Hikaku - List of Actors
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Yoshitaki Utagawa (1841-1899) was a leading printmaker of the Osaka School and thus he was focused on scenes from the kabuki theater and actor portraits. Yoshitaki was a prolific artist. His prints are quite interesting for collectors under a number of aspects.

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Kamigata from Osaka

The printmakers in Osaka produced only a fraction of the ukiyo-e makers in Tokyo. They specialized in woodblock prints related to the popular kabuki theaters. The Osaka printmakers are also known under the term of 'Osaka School'. Their oeuvre is quite peculiar in style and different from the ukiyo-e produced in Edo (Tokyo).

Kamigata Prints is another term for woodblock prints from the Osaka School.

Student of Yoshimune

Yoshitaki Utagawa II

Osaka School
Hunter Kampei and robber Sadakuro in the Kabuki play Kanadehon Chushingura.
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Yoshitaki Utagawa began as a student of Yoshimune. He was accepted as a leading printmaker in the actor print genre from a very early age on. Yoshitaki's numerous works are typical for the late Edo and early Meiji period and the style of the Osaka school.

Yoshitaki Prints: Ideal for Collectors

Yoshitaki Utagawa III

Ukiyo-e - Introduction
Kabuki
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Prints by the Osaka School are a good choice for collectors and art friends. They were usually printed on a thick, robust album paper, typical for the Meiji period. Therefore they are mostly well preserved without major condition problems. Secondly, they were printed with the new synthetic colors which practically do not fade - not even after more than nearly 150 years. Thirdly, many of the Osaka prints were carved in small chuban formats. That makes it easy for collectors to store them. And last but not least, Kamigata prints are inexpensive.

Apart from these more practical reasons, there is another one - a very important one. The subjects of Osaka prints are about kabuki. And the kabuki plays often deal with Japan's history and legends. Thus Osaka prints are not only decorative art, but interesting objects for research in Japan's history and culture.

Single Sheets and Poliptychs

Prints by Yoshitaki Utagawa often come in more than one sheet as diptychs (2), triptychs (3), tetraptychs (4), pentaptychs (5), hexaptychs (6), heptaptychs (7) or even as octaptychs (8). The multi-sheet panels (poliptychs) are usually pasted together at the seams.

Gallery of Woodblock Prints by Yoshitaki Utagawa

Here is a small collection of Yoshitaki prints in different single sheet or multi-panel formats. They are all in chuban size.

Single Sheets

Yoshitaki Utagawa IV

Japanese Prints - Introduction
Flower Merchant - Kabuki
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Yoshitaki Utagawa V

The Kabuki Theater
Kabuki Actor List - Haiyu Jimmei Roku
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Diptychs

Yoshitaki Utagawa VI

The Ukiyo-e Makers - Artist, Carver, Printer and Publisher
Kanadehon Chushingura
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Kanadehon Chushingura Act.3. A samurai is greeting a beauty. The mountain in the background is Mt. Fuji.

Triptychs

Yoshitaki Utagawa VII

Meiji Period
Pleasure Boat and Sunset - Kabuki
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People are sitting in a pleasure boat probably waiting the moon to come out after the sunset.

Tetraptychs

Yoshitaki Utagawa VIII

Woodblock Prints
Encounter at Night - Kabuki
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Kabuki actors are playing a scene in a plum garden at night.

Pentaptych

Yoshitaki Utagawa IX

Kabuki - Introduction
Five Famous Actors
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Five famous actors, Ichikawa Sadanji in serpent kimono, Nakamura Fukusuke in tiger kimono, Arashi Rikan in lion and peony kimono, Jitsukawa Enjaku in Dragon kimono, Bando Jutaro in eagle kimono. They hold Japanese style umbrellas.

Yoshitaki Utagawa X

Japanese Prints - Info
Five samurai
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Five samurai wearing straw raincoats before a battle.

Dieter Wanczura
(July 2009)

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