Toyokuni worked tirelessly during these years, producing a tremendous quantity of prints for the theater public. By opening night of a new performance, or soon after, his drawings for a particular play were in the hands of a publisher who had the woodblock cutters hard at work. The new blocks were soon printed to specification and the fresh new prints delivered to print sellers on the streets. Not considered fine art by the public, these prints were essentially playbills for the various theaters and could be purchased for a few pennies in the print seller's shop.

During the years that Toyokuni was designing actor prints, he continued producing designs depicting beautiful women of the pleasure quarter. He produced a prodigious number of scenes of everyday life inside and outside the Yoshiwara in single sheets, diptychs, triptychs, and pillar prints. The influence of Kiyonaga and Eishi in his designs is unmistakable, and yet there is a stately and almost regal bearing in his designs that is a tribute to the persona of the Japanese woman. A fine example of his pillar print design is 'Young man supporting a girl who is trying to retrieve a shuttlecock from a bamboo grove', where we see his mastery in designing a most difficult format. The scene discloses the ambience of good taste and gentility so loved by enthusiasts of Ukiyo-e. (see illustration 5)

It is not clear exactly when Toyokuni began accepting students into his studio, but it was probably around the turn of the 19th century when he was enjoying his greatest popularity. Unrivaled during this period, his influence on young artists must have been considerable. He became the official head of the Utagawa school and established a style for his students to copy which was, unfortunately for them, circumscribed by his waning powers.

It seems that his decline occurred abruptly after about 1803-05. The demand placed upon him by the publishers for more and more work no doubt took a toll on his creativity, but more than that, he began to grow careless and to lose his finer sensibilities. The stylish realism and flowing line that characterized his best work gave way to a stiffness of posture in his figures. Jutting chins and hardened expressions marked the faces of his actors, and his courtesans displayed a distorted, unappealing eroticism.

Kunisada came to Toyokuni as a student around 1810, and Kuniyoshi came along soon thereafter; both were influenced by the master's late style. Fortunately Kuniyoshi was able to evolve and develop his own softer images of people, while Kunisada continued to produce in Toyokuni's late style for most of his career.

Illustration 5

By 1820, most of the great print designers who had contributed to the Grand Style were dead, and Toyokuni I, the last great master, died five years later. He left behind a large number of students and a tradition that was to dominate figure print design in Ukiyo-e during its final period.

Footnotes

1. The conceit here is that during times of curfew in Edo, only wandering Buddhist monks who had to beg for food were allowed on the streets after hours. These monks, who had taken vows of anonymity, hid their faces under straw hats and played a flute for alms. This was a perfect ploy for a young man in disguise to visit his paramour.

2. James A. Michener, Japanese Prints from the Early Masters to the Modern. Charles E. Tuttle Co. Rutland, VT. 1959

3. R.T. Paine. Toyokuni's Pictures of Actors on Stage. Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

4. R. Lawrence Binion and J.J. O'Brian Sexton. Statement by Samba from Japanese Color Prints. 1954. pg123.

©Copyright 2003 Merlin C. Dailey