19th CenturyAntique PrintsFine ArtJapanese

Utagawa Kunisada – Woodblock Triptych – “All the Beauties in their Prime” (SOLD)

Elegant triptych by Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) – also known as Toyokuni III (三代豊国) one of the great woodblock masters of the 19th Century.  Depicts Oiran (high level courtisans) and Kamuro (young girls who attended to the Oiran) or Kabuki actors depicting them.

Extraordinary detail and patterns in the elaborate kimonos.  SOLD

Utagawa Kunisada

1786-1865

Also known as: Toyokuni III or Utagawa Toyokuni III


Kunisada Utagawa was one of the most popular, prolific and commercially successful designer of Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) in the Edo period.  As a young man in Edo, he became an apprentice to Toyokuni, the great master of the Utagawa school, and followed in his footsteps as a producer of Kabuki and actor prints, celebrating known theatrical and demi-monde personalities of the period.  A well-known trendsetter in his time, he was constantly in the vanguard of fashion, and his style evolved again and again over his lifetime.