Kuniyoshi: Warriors, Cats and Spectres
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) is the great master of the Japanese warrior print, musha-e. His compositions are full of motion: heroes wrestle sea monsters, fight in rain and snow and burst across three sheets at once. He was also witty, inventive and devoted to cats, and his range is wider than that of almost any print artist of his time.
The Suikoden heroes
Kuniyoshi struggled for years before his breakthrough in the late 1820s with a series of prints of the 108 heroes of the Suikoden, a Chinese novel of outlaws hugely popular in Edo. His heroes, tattooed, muscular and caught at the height of action, made him famous overnight and inspired a fashion for full-body tattoos.
Triptychs on a grand scale
Kuniyoshi used the triptych, three vertical sheets side by side, as a single wide stage. In his best-known design, Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, a colossal skeleton leans out of the dark across two sheets, dwarfing the warriors below. Battles, legends and ghost stories received the same panoramic treatment.
Cats, frogs and satire
The Tenpō reforms of the early 1840s restricted prints of actors and courtesans. Kuniyoshi responded with humour: actors and officials appear as cats, frogs, fish and other creatures, and faces are built from groups of smaller figures. These giga, playful pictures, are now among his most collected works. Kuniyoshi kept many cats himself, and they appear throughout his work.
Pupils and influence
His studio trained many artists, including Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, who carried his dramatic style into the Meiji era, and Utagawa Yoshiiku. Through them, and through the energy of his designs, Kuniyoshi's influence reaches modern manga and tattoo art.
Collecting Kuniyoshi
- Complete triptychs. The sheets were sold separately and are often found apart. A complete triptych with matching colour, trimming and condition is worth considerably more than the sum of single sheets.
- Joined sheets. Triptychs are sometimes glued together. That is acceptable, but it should be disclosed, and the join should not hide image.
- Impression. Early impressions have crisp lines and careful colour gradation. Later impressions may lose the gradation in the sky or water.
- Colour. Prints after the late 1850s may show imported aniline colours, a strong purple or red that helps with dating.
- Condition. Look for fading, trimming, holes and backing, and ask for a photograph of the reverse.