Yoshifuji | Omocha-e of Paper Toys

Utagawa Yoshifuji（1828 - 1887）

Utagawa Yoshifuji had talent but lived in the wrong era. He was born in 1828 and became a student of the great Utagawa Kuniyoshi, but by the time he died in 1887, Ukiyoe was in decline. While there was still some great work being produced in those waning days of Japanese woodblock prints, the competition was tougher, the audience smaller.

Yoshifuji’s output touched on all the major themes of these years – warriors, Yokohama-e, bijin. This fan print of two young women writing down their wishes and attaching them to bamboo stalks for the Tanabata Festival is undeniably lovely. But in the end, Yoshifuji’s legacy was in omocha-e, or paintings of toys. This even earned him the nickname, Omocha Yoshifuji. He also illustrated children's books.

What could he do? He had to make a living using skills that were fast passing from popular favor. So: prints for children it was.

The scholar Rebecca Salter points out that these children’s prints were not without merit, even if serious collectors may have scoffed:

“The standard of production was undeniably inferior to earlier prints, but this does not mean that these prints are not worthy of attention,” she wrote. “They may have been made as throwaway items (and indeed few remain) but they demonstrate a visual sophistication reminiscent of earlier prints and can reveal subtle insights into the forces working to change Japanese society from within and without.”