歌川国貞 · 三代豊国 · 源氏絵
源氏絵
Ōban triptych — genji-e — c. 1850
| Artist | Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞), known as Toyokuni III (三代豊国), 1786–1865 — signed Kōchōrō Toyokuni ga (香蝶楼豊国画) on the left and right sheets and Ichiyōsai Toyokuni ga (一陽斎豊国画) on the centre sheet, each with toshidama seal |
| Title | Flowers in Full Bloom — title cartouche upper right |
| Subject | Genji-e: Prince Mitsuuji, hero of Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji ("A Rustic Genji"), reading a letter beneath flowering cherries, attended by two beauties |
| Publisher | Kawaguchiya (川口) — seal reading Kami-Sakamoto-chō Kawaguchi han (上坂本町川口版) on each sheet |
| Date | c. 1850 — the height of the genji-e vogue |
| Technique | Woodblock print (mokuhanga) — nishiki-e (polychrome), ukiyo-e |
| Format | Ōban tate-e triptych (大判三枚続) — three sheets, each approx. 36 × 24 cm (14.2 × 9.4 in.) |
IMPRESSION & COLOURS
Excellent. A sharp, well-inked impression with the fine keyblock work of the textile patterns crisply held — note the layered brocades of Mitsuuji's robes and the iris-and-stream design of the right-hand beauty's kimono. The colours are strong and beautifully balanced: massed blossom pink across the upper register, a deep indigo horizon band, rich teal ground, and fresh reds and blues throughout the garments.
PAPER
Good overall, with light natural toning consistent with age. Minor Trimming. Each sheet carries a horizontal centrefold, and there are two vertical folds along the outer margins of the left and right sheets — all lying flat and unobtrusive when the triptych is displayed. The composition as a whole is very well preserved.
Beneath a canopy of flowering cherries that spreads unbroken across all three sheets, a young nobleman sits on a bench draped with an orange brocade, unrolling a long letter. His extraordinary hairstyle — the waved sidelocks bound with a blue tie — identifies him at once to any Edo viewer: this is Mitsuuji, the impossibly elegant hero of Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji, the runaway bestseller that transposed the Tale of Genji into the Muromachi age. At left, a lady in a blossom-patterned kimono approaches under a white head-covering; at right, a second beauty in a soft mauve over-robe carries a sword in its resting wrapper — a hint of the court intrigue that drives the novel.
The design is a study in spring opulence. Kunisada gives each figure a distinct textile programme — cherry sprays, key-fret and snowflake grounds, an iris-and-stream border — while holding the whole composition together with the horizontal bands of blossom, indigo water and teal grass. It is exactly the kind of sumptuous, decorative genji-e that made these triptychs the luxury wall-pieces of their day, and it displays magnificently as a continuous panorama.
From 1829, the writer Ryūtei Tanehiko published Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji in instalments, with every page illustrated by Kunisada himself. The serial became one of the greatest publishing successes of the Edo period — until the Tenpō Reforms of 1842 banned it as an extravagance. When the reforms loosened, demand came roaring back, and between about 1847 and 1852 Kunisada and his publishers poured out lavish genji-e triptychs of Mitsuuji at his seasonal amusements. This sheet dates from the very height of that vogue.
A pleasing detail for collectors: Kunisada signs the flanking sheets Kōchōrō Toyokuni ga but reserves a different gō — Ichiyōsai Toyokuni ga — for the centre sheet bearing the hero himself.
Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865) was, in his own lifetime, the most popular and commercially successful print designer in Japan — outselling Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi alike. Trained under Toyokuni I, he led the Utagawa school for half a century, and on assuming his master's name signed, as here, Toyokuni. His association with the Inaka Genji was uniquely personal: he had illustrated the original novel from its first instalment, and no other artist owned the subject as he did.
Long undervalued by early Western collectors, Kunisada has been thoroughly re-evaluated in recent decades and his genji-e triptychs of this period — confident, decorative, superbly printed — are increasingly appreciated. His work is held by the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and major collections worldwide.
An impression of this design is held in the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, as part of the celebrated Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese prints. Complete genji-e triptychs with colour of this strength — the blossom pink and indigo essentially unfaded — are increasingly appreciated, and this is a quintessential example of the genre at its 1850 peak.
Shipping: Shipped flat, protected between acid-free tissue and rigid boards, by tracked and insured international post. Ships from Germany.
Guarantee: Original Japanese woodblock print, c. 1850. Guaranteed authentic. Full refund if not as described.