(b Edo, 1769; d Edo, 1825). Painter, woodblock print designer and book illustrator. As a boy he was sent by his father, Gorobei (d 1786), a doll-maker, to the studio of (1) Utagawa Toyoharu. Toyokuni’s first signed works are dated 1786 (Tokyo, Dai Tokyu Mem. Found.). In the 1790s he began his collaboration with Izumiya Ichibei and other publishers in the illustration of kibyoshi (‘yellow covers’; comic novels). In 1794–6 he published a series of large-format, full-figure yakushae (‘pictures of actors’), Yakusha butai no sugatae (‘Likenesses of actors on stage’; e.g. New York, Met.), but his forte was okubie (‘large-head pictures’) portraits of actors, such as the Actor Kataoka Nizaemon VII as Fujiwara Shihei (Tokyo, Sakai col.) and the Actor Onoe Matsusuke I as Kudo Suketsune (see fig.), which show the influence of his contemporary and rival TOSHUSAI SHARAKU. Toyokuni’s career reached its zenith in the decade beginning in 1794. In addition to single-sheet prints, he produced many yakusha ehon (‘picture books of actors’), including Yakusha gakuyatsu (’Actors in dressing-room’; 1799), Yakusha sangaikyo (1801) and Yakusha awase kagami (‘Hand-mirrors of actors’; 1804). Toyokuni’s bijinga (‘pictures of beautiful women’) show the influence of KITAGAWA UTAMARO, though the subjects depicted in Furyu nankomachi yatsushi sugatae and Furyu sanpukutsui are familiar women engaged in everyday activities, lacking the ripe eroticism of Utamaro’s courtesans. After 1800 Toyokuni’s designs became increasingly mannered and conventional, as he tried to keep up with increasing demand. He sought new subject-matter in yakushae by shifting the focus from the physiognomy of individual actors to the depiction of the entire stage in a scene from a particular play. His bijinga shifted from gentle female figures to fiery, stylish beauties. Toyokuni experimented with printing techniques and invented murasakie (‘purple pictures’), also called beni-giral (‘avoiding red’). The names of 28 direct students, including (3) Kunimasa, (5) Kunisada I and (6) Kuniyoshi, are listed on Toyokuni’s funerary monument.

Part of the Utagawa family

• Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825)
  • attributions
    • Toshusai Sharaku, §1: Identity and background
  • collaboration
    • Utagawa: (3) Utagawa Kunimasa
  • pupils
    • Utagawa: (5) Utagawa Kunisada I
    • Utagawa: (6) Utagawa Kuniyoshi
  • teachers
    • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(e): Prints, c 1820–1868
    • Utagawa
  • works
    • Japan, §IX, 2(iii): Illustrated books, Edo period and after
    • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(c): Prints, c 1780–c 1800
    • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(d): Prints and books: Edo period: prints and after: Historical development: c. 1800–c. 1820
    • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(d): Prints and books: Edo period: prints and after: Historical development: c. 1800–c. 1820
    • Katsukawa: (3) Katsukawa Shun’ei