Utagawa School - Utagawa School and Inherited Art-names

Utagawa School and Inherited Art-names

It was a Japanese custom for successful apprentices to take the names of their masters. In the main Utagawa school, there was a hierarchy of gō (art-names), from the most senior to junior. As each senior person died, the others would move up a step.

The head of the school generally used the gō (and signed his prints) as Toyokuni. When Kunisada I proclaimed himself head of the school (c. 1842), he started signing as Toyokuni, and the next most senior member, Kochoro (a name also previously used by Kunisada I, but not as his chief gō), started signing as Kunisada (Kunisada II, in this case).

The next most senior member after him, in turn, began signing as Kunimasa (Kunimasa IV, in this case), which had been Kochoro's gō before he became Kunisada II. (The original Kunimasa I had been a student of Toyokuni I.)

Following is a list of some members of the main Utagawa school, giving the succession of names, along with the modern numbering of each:

• Toyokuni (I)
• Toyoshige -> Toyokuni (II)
• Kunisada (I) -> Toyokuni (III)
• Kochoro -> Kunimasa (III) -> Kunisada (II) -> Toyokuni (IV)
• Kochoro (II) -> Kunimasa (IV) -> Kunisada (III) -> Toyokuni (V)

See here for a more extensive list.