Utagawa Toyokuni – A man who surpassed Sharaku

September 3, 2019 to September 29, 2019

Utagawa Toyokuni (1769~1825) is an ukiyo-e artist who played an active part in the field of yakusha-e (portraits of kabuki actors) and bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women). He studied under Toyoharu, the founder of the Utagawa School. Since he published his representative series “Kabuki Actors on the Stage” in 1794, he stood out in the field of yakusha-e along with Tōshūsai Sharaku and Katsukawa Shun’ei. However, Toyokuni’s clear touch gained greater popularity than the others and he became a leading artist. In the field of bijin-ga, he competed with popular artist Kitagawa Utamaro. Compared to Utamaro’s amorous women, Toyokuni’s women were healthy and elegant, and this also attracted people. Moreover, he created illustrations for books energetically enough to vie with Katsushika Hokusai. Many talented young artists rallied around Toyokuni, who was a leading artist in various genres, and the Utagawa School became the biggest school of ukiyo-e at the end on the Edo period. This year commemorates the 250th year since his birth. Although Toyokuni played an important role as the master of Kuniyoshi and Kunisada, who are more recent popular ukiyo-e artists, exhibitions showing the entirety of his work have rarely been held. This exhibition introduces various genres of Toyokuni’s works and brings out their charms.

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