Japanese Woodblock Print, originally published 1796 by Uemua Yohei, the print at auction is from a Showa era edition published by Adachi from recarved woodblocks

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, 10.25 x 15 inches

COMMENTS: One of the finest "okubi-e" (bust portrait) of the period rivaling those of Sharaku, showing the head and shoulders of kabuki actor Sawamura Sojuro III as Oboshi Yuranosuke in formal 'kamishimo' costume, glancing up to the right, in the play 'Edo no hana Ako no shiogama' by Namiki Gohei I; performed at the Kiri-za from the 4th month of 1796 (Kansei 8).

UTAGAWA TOYOKUNI I (1769-1825) made the Utagawa School the leading printmaking institution for ukiyo-e designs in the 19th century. He was born on February 22, 1769 in Edo (died 1825) as the son of a puppet maker. Utagawa Toyokuni had learned printmaking as a student of Toyoharu, the first head of the Utagawa School.

Toyokuni's two major pupils were the woodblock print masters Kunisada and Kuniyoshi, but he had a host of students in his school. Indeed, so powerful was the Utagawa school after Toyokuni's time that almost every Japanese print artist of note either had one of these two characters in his go, or, like Yoshitoshi, was a student of one who did.

VG, no flaws of note