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Utagawa Yoshitora Artworks collected in Metmuseum

  • David V.

David V.

•3 min read
Utagawa Yoshitora Artworks collected in Metmuseum

Utagawa Yoshitora (歌川 芳虎) was a designer of ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints and an illustrator of books and newspapers who was active from about 1850 to about 1880. He was born in Edo (modern Tokyo), but neither his date of birth nor date of death is known. However, he was the oldest pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi who excelled in prints of warriors, kabuki actors, beautiful women, and foreigners (Yokohama-e).  He may not have seen any of the foreign scenes he depicted.Yoshitora was prolific: he produced over 60 print series and illustrated over 100 books.  In 1849 he produced an irreverent print called Dōke musha: Miyo no wakamochi ("Funny Warriors—Our Ruler's New Year's Rice Cakes"), which depicts Oda Nobunaga, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi making mochi rice cakes for the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu.  A poem by Sawaya Kōkichi accompanies it, reading "Kimi ga yo wo tsuki katametari haru no mochi" ("Tamping down the reign firm and solid like spring rice cakes").  Censors interpreted the print as a criticism of authority and had Yoshitora manacles for fifty days.  Soon after Yoshitora was expelled from Kuniyoshi's studio, possibly due to the print, but he continued to produce illustrations prolifically.From the 1860s Yoshitora produced Yokohama-e pictures of foreigners amid rapid modernization that came to Japan after the country was opened to trade.  He collaborated on a number of landscape series, and in the Meiji period that began in 1868 he also worked in newspapers.  The last of his known works appeared in 1882. Works by Yoshitora https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utagawa_Yoshitora

An American on Horseback

Japanese, active ca. 1850–80 / The Met

   title: An American on Horseback
   department: Asian Art
   accessionYear: 1959

Twilight, Looking at Wild Geese Flying Down Toward Yoshida Bridge

Japanese, active ca. 1850–80 / The Met

   title: Twilight, Looking at Wild Geese Flying Down Toward Yoshida Bridge
   department: Asian Art
   accessionYear: 1959

American Couple

Japanese, active ca. 1850–80 / The Met

   title: American Couple
   department: Asian Art
   accessionYear: 1959

People of the Five Nations Drinking and Eating (Gokakoku jinbutsu dontaku no zu)

Japanese, active ca. 1850–80 / The Met

   title: People of the Five Nations Drinking and Eating (Gokakoku jinbutsu dontaku no zu)
   department: Asian Art
   accessionYear: 1959

View of Shibaura, from the series Eastern Capital (Tōto, Shibaura no fūkei)

Japanese, active ca. 1850–80 / The Met

   title: View of Shibaura, from the series Eastern Capital (Tōto, Shibaura no fūkei)
   department: Asian Art
   accessionYear: 1959

English Couple Sharing an Umbrella

Japanese, active ca. 1850–80 / The Met

   title: English Couple Sharing an Umbrella
   department: Asian Art
   accessionYear: 1959

American Balloon Ascension (Amerikakoku)

Japanese, active ca. 1850–80 / The Met

   title: American Balloon Ascension (Amerikakoku)
   department: Asian Art
   accessionYear: 1959

An American Carousing

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