Toyohara Chikanobu


Toyohara Chikanobu, better known to his contemporaries as Yōshū Chikanobu, was a prolific woodblock artist of Japan's Meiji.

Names

Chikanobu signed his artwork "Yōshū Chikanobu". This was his "art name". The artist's "real name" was Hashimoto Naoyoshi; and it was published in his obituary.
Many of his earliest works were signed "studio of Yōshū Chikanobu"; a small number of his early creations were simply signed "Yōshū". At least one triptych from 12 Meiji exists signed "Yōshū Naoyoshi".
The portrait of the Emperor Meiji held by the British Museum is inscribed "drawn by Yōshū Chikanobu by special request".
No works have surfaced that are signed either "Toyohara Chikanobu" or "Hashimoto Chikanobu".

Military career

Chikanobu was a retainer of the Sakakibara clan of Takada Domain in Echigo Province. After the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate, he joined the Shōgitai and fought in the Battle of Ueno.
He joined Tokugawa loyalists in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, where he fought in the Battle of Hakodate at the Goryōkaku star fort. He served under the leadership of Enomoto Takeaki and Ōtori Keisuke; and he achieved fame for his bravery.
Following the Shōgitai's surrender, he was remanded along with others to the authorities in the Takada domain.

Artistic career

In 1875, he decided to try to make a living as an artist. He travelled to Tokyo. He found work as an artist for the Kaishin Shimbun. In addition, he produced nishiki-e artworks. In his younger days, he had studied the Kanō school of painting; but his interest was drawn to ukiyo-e. He studied with a disciple of Keisai Eisen and then he joined the school of Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi; during this period, he called himself Yoshitsuru. After Kuniyoshi’s death, he studied with Kunisada. He also referred to himself as Yōshū.
Like many ukiyo-e artists, Chikanobu turned his attention towards a great variety of subjects. His work ranged from Japanese mythology to depictions of the battlefields of his lifetime to women's fashions. As well as a number of the other artists of this period, he too portrayed kabuki actors in character, and is well known for his impressions of the mie of kabuki productions. Chikanobu was known as a master of bijinga. images of beautiful women, and for illustrating changes in women's fashion, including both traditional and Western clothing. His work illustrated the changes in coiffures and make-up across time. For example, in Chikanobu's images in Mirror of Ages, the hair styles of the Tenmei era, 1781-1789 are distinguished from those of the Keiō era, 1865-1867. His works capture the transition from the age of the samurai to Meiji modernity, the artistic chaos of the Meiji period exemplifying the concept of "furumekashii/imamekashii".
Chikanobu is a recognizable Meiji period artist, but his subjects were sometimes drawn from earlier historical eras. For example, one print illustrates an incident during the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake. The early Meiji period was marked by clashes between disputing samurai forces with differing views about ending Japan's self-imposed isolation and about the changing relationship between the Imperial court and the Tokugawa shogunate. He created a range of impressions and scenes of the Satsuma Rebellion and Saigō Takamori. Some of these prints illustrated the period of domestic unrest and other subjects of topical interest, including prints like the 1882 image of the Imo Incident, also known as the Jingo Incident at right.
The greatest number of Chikanobu's war prints appeared in triptych format. These works documented the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. For example, the "Victory at Asan" was published with a contemporaneous account of the July 29, 1894 battle.
Among those influenced by Chikanobu were Yōsai Nobukazu and Yōdō Gyokuei.

Genres

Battle scenes

Examples of battle scenes include:
Examples of scenes from this war include:
Examples of scenes from this war include:
Examples of scenes from this war include:

Warrior prints

Examples of warrior prints include:

Beauty pictures

Examples of "beauty pictures" include:

Historical pictures

Examples of historical scenes include:
Recent history
Ancient history

Famous places

Examples of scenic spots include:

Portraits

Examples of portraits include:

Enlightenment pictures

Examples of "enlightenment pictures" include:

Theatre scenes

Examples of "kabuki scenes/actor portraits" include:

Memorial prints

Examples of "Memorial prints" include:

Women's pastimes

Examples of "Etiquette and Manners for Women" include:

Emperor Meiji pictures

Examples of Emperor Meiji relaxing include:

Contrast pictures

Examples of "Contrast prints" include:

Glorification of the Geisha

Examples of this genre include:

Formats

Like the majority of his contemporaries, he worked mostly in the ōban tate-e format. There are quite a number of single panel series, as well as many other prints in this format which are not a part of any series.
He produced several series in the ōban yoko-e format, which were usually then folded cross-wise to produce an album.
Although he is, perhaps, best known for his triptychs, single topics and series, two diptych series are known as well. There are, at least, two polyptych prints known.
His signature may also be found in the line drawings and illustrations in a number of ehon, which were mostly of a historical nature. In addition, there are fan prints uchiwa-e, as well as number of sheets of sugoroku with his signature that still exist and at least three prints in the kakemono-e format were produced in his latter years.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Hashimoto Toyohara, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 300+ works in 300+ publications in 2 languages and 700+ library holdings