Utagawa KUNISADA (Toyokuni III).1786-1864 A Kabuki actor.1853-54Polychrome woodcut. 350x238xmm., trimmed within margins. At the bottom right the signature “Toyokuni ga” in the red Toshidama cartouche, next two seals, a circular aratame censor’s seal and a separate oval zodiacal date seal. Slight defects.

A fine Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print. A man standing with a puzzled expression, looks towards his left. He is probably the famous Kabuki actor Bando Hikosaburo IV, also portrayed in other prints by Kunisada. Utagawa Kunisada, also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III, was the most popular, prolific and commercially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan. In his own time, his reputation far exceeded that of his contemporaries, Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi. From around 1850 on almost his prints have the signature enclosed in a Toshidama cartouche. Just to 1860 the very most prints were only signed with "Toyokuni ga" in these cartouches, mostly red but also yellow, blue or green coloured.