Shunkōsai Hokushū

Signatures of Shunkōsai Hokushū from left to right: “Shunkō ga” (春好　画) and “Shunkōsai Hokushū” (春好斎　北洲)

woodblock print by Shunkōsai Hokushū of kabuki actor Nakamura Utaemon III as Seno-o no Tarō

Shunkōsai Hokushū (春好斎　北洲), who is also known as Shunkō IV, was a designer of ukiyo-e style Japanese woodblock prints in Osaka who was active from about 1802 to 1832. He is known to have been a student of Shōkōsai Hambei, and may have also studied with Hokusai.^[1] He used the name Shunkō (春好) until 1818, when he changed his name to “Shunkōsai Hokushū”. He was the most important artist in Osaka during the 1810-1820s and established the Osaka style of actor prints.^[2]

Notes

1. Roberts, 1976, p. 49
2. Newland, 2005, p. 488

References

• Keyes, Roger S. & Keiko Mizushima, The Theatrical World of Osaka Prints, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, 266.
• Lane, Richard. (1978). Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192114471; OCLC 5246796
• Newland, Amy Reigle, The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amsterdam, Hotei Publishing, 2005, Vol. 2, 488.
• Roberts, Laurance P., A Dictionary of Japanese Artists, Tokyo, Weatherhill, 1976, 49.