Utagawa Yoshitora (歌川芳虎: ca. 1836-1887) (artist )
Nagashima (original family name - 永島)Tatsugorō (nickname - 辰五郎)
Tatsunosuke (nickname - 辰之助)
Tatsusaburō (nickname - 辰三郎)
Ichimōsai (gō 一猛斎)
Mōsai (gō 孟斎 - after 1874)
Kinchōrō (gō 錦朝楼)
Links
Hanga.comBiography:
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston lists Yoshitora as being active from ca. 1836-87.
****
"Little is known of Yoshitora’s life, other than he was born and worked in Edo, became a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), changed addresses frequently in the late 1870s, and fell out of sight after 1882.
As an artist, Yoshitora was a prolific printmaker and illustrator whose work covered a broad range of subjects including warrior and war prints (musha-e and senso-e), “large-head” (okubi-e) actor portraits, prints of beautiful women (bijinga), prints of Japan’s modernization (kaika-e), humorous prints (giga) and, most famously, Yokohama-e, prints depicting Westerners and their technological advances, of which he designed over 150.
His earliest known work, illustrations in the book Story of Karasu Kanzaemon’s Loyalty (Karasu Kanzaemon chugi den), dates from 1836 and his first print series dates to the early 1840s. Throughout his career Yoshitora collaborated with other artists on various prints and print series, such as his work with Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833-1904) and Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889) on Famous Views of Modern Tokyo (Tokyo kaika meisho no uchi), 1873 and Utagawa Kunisada I's (1786–1865) so-called “Kinshodo Edition of Large-Head Actor Portraits” (Kinshodo-ban yakusha okubi-e).
Yoshitora was considered one of Kuniyoshi’s best pupils and was ranked as high as second best in the "ranking list of nishiki-e artists" in 1868, after Utagawa Sadahide (1807-1873). After his brush with the law (see “Censorship and Handcuffs” below) it is reported that he was “expelled from Kuniyoshi’s studio.”
Writing in 1922, at a time when the view of late Edo and Meiji prints was generally negative, the English collector Basil Stewart wrote:
“Of these [Kuniyoshi’s pupils] Yoshitora (w. 1850) was, perhaps, one of the best, his colours being as a rule less offensive than is generally the case with prints of this date.”
During the Meiji era (starting 1867) Yoshitora worked as a newspaper journalist and in the early 1880s most of his work was as a book illustrator. One of the few students he had, Yoshi (aka Horiyoshi), became a tattoo artist.
****
In a 2019 exhibition at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota it says: "Utagawa Yoshitora, taught by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, achieved respect as an artist for designing prints that spanned various genres. In 1836 he initiated his career with illustrations for Story of Karasu Kanzaemon’s Loyalty, and became controversial in the 1840s by producing the piece, Funny Warriors: Our Ruler’s New Year’s Rice Cakes, which contained banned content. His best works are in the genre of Yokohama-e, which depict the appearance of Westerners and their inventions in the port city of Yokohama in the 1850s. In 1873 he continued to pursue modern subjects in his prints, including designing Famous Views of Modern Tokyo, a project that he completed with with Utagawa Yoshiiku and Kawanabe Kyōsai."
Censorship and handcuffs
Various restrictions on print content and publishing were put in place by the bakufu during the 1840s and "in 1843, Eisen, Hiroshige, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), Utagawa Sadahide (1807-73) and Utagawa Yoshitora (act. C. 1830s-1880s) gave a joint written undertaking to the bakufu not to produce any unacceptable prints, which is some indication of the oppressive atmosphere of the times.” Despite the above assurances, Yoshitora ran afoul of the authorities in 1849 for satirizing shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616; r. 1603-05) in his print Funny Warriors-Our Ruler’s New Year’s Rice Cakes (Doke musha: miyo no wakamochi) and was sentenced to 50 days in handcuffs."