Accession No. RARE.2023.0076: Purchased, 2023 September
[identification of item], “Imayo Mitate Shi-No-Ko-Sho: Shokunin” (“A Modern-Day Adaptation of the Four Classes: Artisans”) by Kunisada Utagawa Printed Triptych, SPEC.RARE.0323, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Sabrina Gorse, 2023 December; Finding aid written by: Sabrina Gorse, 2023 December
Ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world”, was a style of art - primarily woodblock printing, but also painting, book illustration, drawings, and ephemera - that began during the Edo Period (1615-1868) in Japan. The style first developed in the city of Edo (modern-day Tokyo), gaining popularity with the wider public due to its ability to be mass-produced and sold at an affordable price. It comes from the term “ukiyo” ("floating world") regarding the ephemerality of human life, but later came to focus on themes related to the pursuit of pleasure and the present moment, particularly those found in urban locations like the theatre districts and pleasure quarters. Popular themes depicted include Kabuki actors (yakusha-e), “beautiful women” (bijin-ga), landscapes, historical events, heroic and folk tales, and erotica.
Ukiyo-e prints were originally printed with black ink; over time, color prints were introduced, wherein color was added either by hand or introducing additional woodblocks. By the late 1760s, ukiyo-e benefited from the introduction of nishiki-e, or “brocade pictures”, full-color prints produced by a multi-block color printing process. The production of ukiyo-e prints typically involved the work of four artisans – the artist who designs the prints, the blockcutter, the printer, and the publisher who planned and financed the printing.
Kunisada Utagawa (1786-1864) was an ukiyo-e artist active during the nineteenth century. Born a son of a lumber wholesaler who owned stock in a ferry service in Honjo Itsutsume, Kunisada later joined the studio of Utagawa Toyokuni I, a leading ukiyo-e master, as a student in 1801. He began his own studio in the 1810s. He is best known for his Kabuki actor portraits, pictures of beautiful women, and illustrations for Ryutei Tanehiko’s novel, Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji (“The False Murasaki’s Rustic Genji”).
“Imayo Mitate Shi-No-Ko-Sho: Shokunin” (“A Modern-Day Adaptation of the Four Classes: Artisans”) by Kunisada Utagawa Printed Triptych contains the triptych woodblock prints for “Imayo Mitate Shi-No-Ko-Sho: Shokunin” designed by Kunisada Utagawa and published by Uoei (Uoya Eikichi) in 1857. The triptych is part of Kunisada’s Imayo Mitate Shi-No-Ko-Sho ukiyo-e series in which Kunisada illustrated women working in traditionally male professions. This particular set of prints depicts women working as artisans in a woodblock printing studio: a woodblock cutter carves lines of a hanshita illustration into a woodblock while her helper sharpens her carving tools (right), another woodblock cutter uses a chisel and hammer to cut out parts of a different block (top center), a third woman prepares paper with nikawa for printing (bottom center), a woman and a child hang up or take down prints that had already been prepared (center left), and the printer sits off to the side, smoking (bottom left).