Utagawa TOYOKUNIEdo, 1769 – 1825A portraying a sake peddler encountering a dog.Early 19th centuryPolychrome woodcut. 380x260 mm., trimmed within margins. Bottom left, Toyokuni's signature, censor's round seal and publisher's mark. Some defects.

Japanese Edo period woodblock print by Toyokuni I (1769-1825) depicting the kabuki actor Nakamura Utaemon III portraying a sake peddler encountering a dog from a set of eight prints published by Yamamoto Heikichi in 1815. Kiwame censor’s seal. Utagawa Toyokuni, also often referred to as Toyokuni I, to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his gō (art-name) after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his kabuki actor prints. He was the second head of the renowned Utagawa school of Japanese woodblock artists, and was the artist who really moved it to the position of great fame and power it occupied for the rest of the nineteenth century.