Minazuki and Toyokuni I

This particular print, titled Minazuki, was created by artist Utagawa Toyokuni (alias Toyokuni I.) Toyokuni I studied under Utagawa Toyoharu, and eventually took on his family name. Toyokuni I was not interested in forming a distinct, out-of-nowhere art style, as his fellow pupil Toyohiro had done. Instead, he synthesized the masters who came before him, including the work of his own sensei, and created an art style out of a mixture of what he believed worked in the other pieces. He began his career creating art based around bijin-ga, but his fame came from his yakusha-e. His father was a doll carver, mainly based on kabuki actors, so it seems fitting that that would become Toykuni I's subject of choice also. He's particularly known for his work on yakusha-e (actor prints,) an art which he sophisticated through his lifetime. His prints give more life to the actor themselves, making them the most important part of the piece, rather than making the kabuki part of the actor the most important. The prints were a form of souvenirs for the fans and advertisements for the theaters, so these pieces were important to depict the specific actors involved in the stage shows. When he died he gave way to two successors, Toyokuni II, who married his daughter, and Toyokuni III, who took over the Utagawa school when Toyokuni II died in 1835.

(this is the closest i could find to the image in color)

The above image features a woman in an open and loose Kimono, checking something on the back of her neck with a mirror. She could be checking that her hairline is even, or that her wig is on correctly. She's in front of another mirror, in order to see the mirror held behind herself. There is a makeup brush and a pot of makeup sitting on the mirror in front of her, indicating she is currently in a getting ready routine. We discussed in class the difference in hairstyles between a wealthy courtesan and a lower courtesan in this image by Utamaro:

The woman in Toyokuni I's print looks as though her wig style and decoration is closer to the woman on the right, indicating she is of a much lower class and customer class. Her Kimono is very plain compared to ones we've seen in other prints, which means it may just be a yukata for sitting around and getting ready/bathing. This image was painted closer to the end of his life, but due to the fact that men played both male and female roles in kabuki, this is most likely a revisit to bijin-ga. There is actually not much information on this particular print, however a print by his successor, Toyokuni III can help discern some hidden meaning behind his teacher's painting.

This image is titled Applying Makeup to the Neck. The image seems to be the same scene as done by Toyokuni I, but from a different angle. The woman is putting makeup onto the back of her neck, underneath the hairline. This area is apparently considered a very sensual area in Japanese art, especially when coupled with her exposed breasts in Toyokuni I's original print. This piece now takes on a more voyeur-esque feel, as though we are peeping in on her doing something most of her customer's would not be privy to see. She is also smiling, which shows she's enjoying the task of getting ready for her job, not just seeing this as another task to do. Men would probably enjoy seeing that this woman enjoyed getting ready for their "dates," and didn't just see it as work. The purpose of this piece, from what I have researched into, was a sort of soft-core pornographic image, similar to someone having a poster of a woman in a bikini on their wall.