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- One of Kunisada ll�s students adopted the title of Kunisada III (1848-1920) [30], but his work was unexceptional. Of Kunisada�s other followers, the best was Sadahide (1807-73) [45], who produced some prints of fairly good quality.
Historical prints were the forte of Toyokuni�s other famous student, Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) [32, IV]. Kuniyoshi made excellent prints of beautiful women and landscapes, but he is most remembered for his grand epic works depicting military battles, samurai warriors, court intrigue and ghost stories. Although he liked strange angles of vision, garish colours and compositions in which many images are all crowded together, his prints are so powerful that they are totally satisfying. Kuni- yoshi�s wild imagination led him to create satires and animal cartoons about politics, one of which resulted in his punishment by the feudal government. Kuniyoshi also loved to put heavily tattooed men in his prints. His bizarre pictures were so popular that some young men had their bodies tattooed with his designs.
Kuniyoshi was a prolific artist who produced tens of thousands of prints. For a time, he studied Dutch prints, and some of this influence can also be seen in his work. His most successful pupils included artists such as Yoshitoshi, Yoshitora, Yoshinobu [42] and Yoshikazu [44]. He had numerous other followers of lesser importance.
Some experts consider Yoshitoshi (1839-92) [41] the last great ukiyo-e artist. Like his master Kuniyoshi, Yoshitoshi has a taste for the bizarre, the fantastic and the ghoulish. This may have had something to do with the fact that he was mentally ill for a while and lived in a tumultuous period marked by radical social and political upheavals. Although violence and sadism figured largely in his work, Yoshitoshi also produced some fascinating historical prints as well as newspaper illustra�tions and prints of beautiful women and actors.
Kuniyoshi�s student Yoshitora (active 1850�s- 70�s) [43] produced reasonably good land�scapes and figure prints. He also liked battle scenes and created several good series of prints on the Forty-seven Ronin story.
Although Tokyo (Edo) was the centre of the ukiyo-e print industry in the nineteenth
de carri�re. Il se fichait des soucis financiers, et se disait �un vieux fou de la peinture.�� L�atmosph�re d�activit� turbulente qui carac�t�rise ses oeuvres refl�te probablement son �nergie d�bordante. Parmi les nombreux �l�ves de Hokusai, il faut citer Hokuju (actif 1789-1818), Shinsai (1764-1820), Hokkei (1780-1850) [24], Gakutei (17867-1868) et Shigenobu (1782-1832).
Bien que Hiroshige [25, III] ait �t� pendant un certain temps le contemporain de Hokusai, on fait parfois allusion � lui comme �tant le successeur de Hokusai. En fait, ils �taient rivaux et avaient des conceptions de l�art tr�s divergentes, non seulement dans le dessin, mais �galement dans le coloris. Les estampes de Hiroshige donnent dans le calme et le paisible, beaucoup plus que celles de Hokusai. El�ve du paysagiste Toyohiro, Hiroshige a �tudi� la perspective occidentale aussi bien que les diff�rents styles des �coles de peinture Kano, Nanga et Shijo. Il avait de nombreuses occasions de voyager en dehors de Tokyo, en pleine campagne japonaise, et c�est au cours de ces voyages qu�il faisait les croquis qui servaient de base � ses estampes de paysage. Bien que ses illustrations soient fid�les � la nature, son coloris est plus clair, plus riche et plus radieux que la couleur naturelle. Sa sensibilit� � l�ambiance est �vidente dans le rendu des saisons, du temps et de l�heure de la journ�e. Une compr�hen�sion passionn�e de la nature anime ses images de chutes de neige silencieuses, de pluies drues et de matin�es brumeuses.
La plus c�l�bre suite d�estampes de Hiroshige est �Les Cinquante-trois Relais du Tokaido� et les �Vues c�l�bres d�Edo.� Le public r�clamait si insatiablement ses vues d�Edo (Tokyo) que pour le satisfaire, on pr�tend qu�il a produit plus de douze cents sc�nes diff�rentes � diff�rentes saisons et � diff�rentes heures de la journ�es. Ses paysages font figurer presque toujours des personnages, mais ceux-ci ne sont pas le centre d�int�r�t principal. L��tre humain sert surtout � mettre l�accent sur les vastes proportions du paysage ou d�un ph�nom�ne naturel, une pluie battante, par exemple. Bien qu�il d�peigne assez souvent le peuple vaquant � ses occupations quoti�diennes, il a r�alis� quelques �tudes somp�tueuses d�oiseaux et de fleurs (kacho-e), aussi bien que des sc�nes de genre et certaines
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