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The Actor Matsumoto Koshiro V as Hata no Daizen

The Actor Matsumoto Koshiro V as Hata no Daizen

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Utagawa Kuninaga

Kuninaga studied alongside Kunisada, the dominate designer of actor prints (yakusha-e) in the nineteenth century, as a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni. Kuninaga’s actor-print designs are quite rare. This one strongly resembles the simplified compositions in his teacher’s groundbreaking 1794 series Figures of Actors on Stage. Kuninaga depicts the actor Matsumoto Koshiro V in the role of the itinerate monk Hataryu from the play A View of the Snowy Home Country Through the Bamboo Curtain. The lone figure in an empty space stands against a simple background of graduated color. The printer creates a decorative circular pattern in the inked area called gomazuri by rubbing the edge of a bamboo disc on the wet paper during printing. The actor’s name and role are printed in the paper’s white negative space.
Artist
Utagawa Kuninaga
(Japanese, 1829)
Title
The Actor Matsumoto Koshiro V as Hata no Daizen
Date
11/1804
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
374 x 250 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.2611
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 183, no. 169

  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 : Chazen Museum of Art, 3/21/2008–6/15/2008
  • Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/3/2007–1/6/2008

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