Kunihiro - Actor Print with Spirits

Ganjôsai Kunihiro

A rare supernatural actor print, the flames represent spirits. Ganjôsai Kunihiro was an active ukiyo-e artist between roughly 1815 and 1843. He is best known for his kabuki actor portraits. According to records from the British Museum, Kunihiro may have received instruction from Toyokuni Utagawa, the leading master of the Edo-based Utagawa School.

Like many ukiyo-e artists of the period, little is known about Kunihiro’s personal life. This lack of documentation is not uncommon, especially among Osaka-based printmakers, who often had smaller workshops and more limited print runs than their Edo counterparts. However, his surviving woodblock prints remain valuable historical records of kabuki theater and 19th-century popular culture.

Date: 1830's

Publisher: Tenmaya Kihei

Condition: Very good color. Backed on paper. Cropped as shown.

Genre: Ukiyo-e (Osaka-style) Yakusha-e

Medium: Woodblock Print