Untitled

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

19th century · Woodblock print; ink on thin paper (some corrections have been pasted over the drawing) · Asian Art

The preparatory drawing for a print is usually pasted on a woodblock and cut along the lines of the drawing. This surviving preparatory drawing, which was apparently not used, is extremely rare. Kuniyoshi combined old-fashioned didacticism with an atmosphere of exoticism and novelty by exploring Western pictorial techniques and characterizations, about which the general public of his time had great curiosity. Zhu Shouchang (J.: Shu Jushō) searched and found his mother, who had disappeared during his early youth, after a separation of more than fifty years.

Artist

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Date

19th century

Medium

Woodblock print; ink on thin paper (some corrections have been pasted over the drawing)

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Fletcher Fund, 1939