Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Ikkaisai Yoshitoshi

Yoshitoshi Tsukioka

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

月岡芳年

Yoshitoshi

Taiso Yoshitoshi

Taiso

Gyokuō

Kaisai

Ikkaisai

大蘇芳年

print designer

painter

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was the last and greatest genius of traditional ukiyo-e. Born in the last years of the Tokogawa Shogunate, he lived most of his adult life in the Meiji era of modernisation. Influenced by Western art, he strove against the loss of traditional Japanese values, devoting most of his work to reminding the Japanese who he felt they were, and should be. His innovations in composition and line, his ability to capture a personality or a moment, are unique in ukiyo-e, and rare in the history of art.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi apprenticed with Utagawa Kuniyoshi from his early teens—an experience that gave him invaluable training in drawing as well as exposure to one of the more inventive imaginations of the early nineteenth century.

Yoshitoshi used the signature "Ikkaisai" or "Ikkaisai Yoshitoshi" prior to 1873, possibly emulating his teacher Kuniyoshi's use of the studio name "Ichiyûsai"; after 1873, he dropped "Ikkaisai" in favor of Taisō.

Male

student of: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797-1861)