Print 1800 - 1865

This print was made by Utagawa Kunisada, a leading designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th century Japan. This wasn't fine art, but a popular, commercial product. Prints like this one were made using multiple blocks, each carved and inked with a different color. Look closely, and you can see the flat planes of color created by this process, the subtle texture of the paper, and the lines where the blocks meet. Kunisada didn't carve the blocks himself. That would have been done by specialist artisans, working under his direction. This division of labor was typical of ukiyo-e production, and speaks to the increasingly industrialized nature of art making in Japan. The publisher would have also played a key role, acting as a kind of producer, commissioning designs and marketing the finished prints to a wide audience. By understanding the materials and processes used to create this print, we can appreciate it not just as a work of art, but also as a product of its time, reflecting the social and economic forces at play in 19th century Japan.