Utagawa Toyokuni II
Encyclopedia
Ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
Japanese woodblock prints
Woodblock printing in Japan
Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...
in Edo
Edo
, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
. He was the pupil, son-in-law and adopted son of Toyokuni I. The former used the name Toyoshige (豊重) until 1826, the year after his teacher’s death, when he began signing his work Toyokuni (豊国). Kunisada
Kunisada
Utagawa Kunisada was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan...
, another student of Toyokuni I, did not recognize Toyoshige’s claim and declared himself “Toyokuni” and leader of the school. Toyoshige resumed signing his work “Toyoshige”.
Toyokuni I, Toyokuni II (Toyoshige), and Toyokuni III (Kunisada)
Kunisada
Utagawa Kunisada was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan...
each used the signature Toyokuni (豊国). The signature of Toyokuni II is easiest to distinguish by the chalice-shaped toyo (豊) kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
(see figure).
Toyoshige’s students include Utagawa Kunimatsu, Utagawa Kunishige II, Utagawa Kuniteru III, and Utagawa Kunitsuru I.