Artist of the week
Actors, heroes and early summer rain
Utagawa Kunisada
Utagawa Kunisada, an Edo printmaker of actors and heroes, from 1819 to 1863. Ichikawa Danjūrō VII glares from under huge black tufts of hair, white peonies behind him and a poem in white on black. Mitsuuji in blue brocade holds a sprig of yellow mountain roses, and grey rain falls on a red horse in a flooded field. Guan Yu, red-faced and long-bearded, sits among a peacock, a deer and a red ogre, all basketwork, and the tattooed heroes of the Water Margin crowd together on deep blue.
As a puzzle
Start with the strongest colour: the red horse and red posts in the rain, the yellow roses, the peacock and the red ogre, Danjūrō’s glaring face. The slow parts repeat: grey rain lines over everything, the green lattice behind the basketwork, the deep blue around the heroes, the cream paper and poem text around the woman in blue. The Water Margin crowd and the basketwork sheet take a high count; keep the rest moderate.
A good size here: 50–250 pieces.
6 pictures, pick one to build
Ichikawa Danjūrō VII as Arajishi Otokonosuke 1829 
Bun’ya no Asayasu (no. 36), from the series A Pictorial Commentary on One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets (Hyakunin isshu eshō: Bun'ya no Asayasu) ca. 1844 
Rain of the Fifth Month (Samidare) 19th century 
Basketry Work: By the Craftsman Ichida Shōshichirō of Naniwa (Kagozaiku Naniwa saikunin Ichida Shōshichirō) 1819 
Mitsuuji with Mountain Roses (Yamabuki), from the series “Six Jewel Faces” (Mu tama-gao) mid- to late 1830s 
Utagawa's Lifetime Masterpiece, from the Japanese version of the Shuihu Zhuan 1863 (5th month)