Bidspirit auction | Kunichika, Satsukiame Gonin Inazuma, Kabuki

Kunichika, Satsukiame Gonin Inazuma, Kabuki Irezumi - Artist: Kunichika Toyohara (1835-1900) Title: Satsukiame Gonin Inazuma Publisher: Hacchobori Matsuei Date: Meiji (1868-1912) Size: (L) 35.5 x 25.0, (C) 35.4 x 25.0, (R) 35.4 x 24.8 cm Condition: Pinholes, good impression in colours, thin spot on left panel, some margin wear, minor creases. Female warriors and gangsters were very rare in real life but do sometimes occur as characters in kabuki plays. Similarly, elaborate tattoos were much less common for women than for men but apparently not unknown. In this triptych, Kunichika imagines a group of tattooed women arming for battle. One of the last great masters of ukiyo-e, Kunichika was inspired by the plays, actors and customs of kabuki theatre. His colourful prints are records of a long lost, decadent underworld of Edo. Since the beginning of the Meiji period, he made a large number of triptychs depicting half length portraits of a single actor on a big format and in luxurious style, applying original composition in this new design of dynamic prints. He got acclaimed for this work that improved the quality of half-length portraits and because those prints became known by their innovative composition, he succeeded in obtaining the full supremacy in the field of yakusha-e (actor prints). His portrayal of human faces have some traces of his previous studies in hagoita style painting and can appear to be cold and hard, depending on the perspective, but it became a feature characteristic of his style. Ref: JG011806