As we have seen, Toyokuni's career ended anything but brilliantly.
Unfortunately his numerous followers appear to have been influenced more
by his final work than by the production of his better days. I do not
regard it as profitable to wade, as some writers have done, through this
wearying period of degenerate production and tabulate every fact
obtainable about every insignificant artist with the same care that one
would bestow upon Kiyonaga. I shall therefore be content to note down
only the most salient features of this epoch of disintegration.
Following Toyokuni, at least four men used the name made famous by him.
The first of these, Toyokuni II, was that same Toyokuni Gosotei of whom
we shall treat under the heading of Landscape. His use of the name
Toyokuni appears to have been between the years 1825 and 1835.
Toyokuni III was better known as Kunisada I; for though he was born in
1786 and lived until 1865, he did not adopt the name of Toyokuni until
about 1844. He added to our confusion by the fact that he signed himself
"Toyokuni" or "Toyokuni II," never recognizing the claims of the real
Toyokuni II to the name. Most frequently Kunisada's Toyokuni signature
is enclosed in a long red cartouch, a device never used by Toyokuni I.
This very undistinguished artist was one of the most prolific producers
of the school. All that meaningless complexity of design, coarseness of
colour, and carelessness of printing which we associate with the final
ruin of the art of colour-prints finds full expression in him. Every
tourist returning from Japan brings back dozens of crudely coloured
prints by him or by the members of his school, under the misapprehension
that these are the famous and valuable Japanese prints of which he has
vaguely heard. The only figure work of Kunisada's that I am able to
recall with any pleasure is his really notable Memorial Portrait of
Hiroshige, a dignified and impressive print. The few landscapes he
produced are of much greater beauty than his figures, and one is
inclined to wish that he had done more in this field and less in the
other.
[Illustration: KUNISADA.]
TOYOKUNI IV was also known as Kunisada II and as Kunimasa II. Born 1833,
he died 1880. His prints, largely executed in cheap analine colours, set
one's teeth on edge with some of the most shrieking discords that I have
ever encountered. There exists an unfortunate collector who proudly
brought back from Japan one hundred and nineteen triptychs by this
artist.
TOYOKUNI V was also called Kunisada III and Kunimasa III. His work was
worthless.
KUNIMASA I (1772-1810) was an exceedingly able pupil of Toyokuni, who
was influenced by Sharaku. Some of his work is very fine; he stands out
as one of the few notable designers of this group.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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