About This Print

Source: "Kawanabe Kyosai and Toyohara Kunichika," by Shigeru Oikawa appearing in Time Present and Time Past: Images of a Forgotten Master: Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900), by Amy Reigle Newland, Hotei Publishing, 1999, p. 40, 42.

In 1877 the publisher Sawamuraya Seikichi issued this collaborative print by Kunichika and Kyōsai, the only collaborative triptych by the two artists.  “Kunichika contributed the fore- and middle-ground scenes illustrating figures in aristocratic dress, which are apparently a reference to the 11th-century Tale of Genji.  The background is dominated by Kyōsai’s rendition of a western-style suspension bridge which had recently been built on the grounds of the imperial palace in Tokyo.”  The artists have signed the print in the areas of their contribution.  Kunichika’s signature in the right panel is proceeded with the two characters 人物  (“jinbutsu”) meaning “human figure by.”

Kunichika and Kyōsai were two of the most popular woodblock print artists of the 1870s.  Contemporaries, they were “well-acquainted, but at times adversarial, companions.”   It was not unusual for publishers to have multiple artists work on different portions of a single print, each being assigned their design strength.  Kyōsai and Kunichika first collaborated in 1875 on four prints in the series Collection of Famous views of Modern Tokyo¹, published by the same publisher of this triptych. 

¹ See the print The Entrance of Asakusa Temple: Taking a Portrait of the Nio Guardians for additional information on this series.

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