Yamamura Kôka

Yamakura Kôka (山村耕花), also Toyonari (豊成) - 1885-1942- studied with Ogata Gekkô (1859-1920) and graduated from the Tokyo Art School in 1907. He began designing actor prints at least as early as 1915, — signing with both art names — by contributing to the short-lived magazine Shin nigao ("New Portraits"). However, it was his collaboration with the publisher Shôzaburô Watanabe in the following year that provided Kôka with a means to establish an impressive body of work in the actor print genre.

He created at least 16 designs for Watanabe, including an important series of 12 prints for the series Rien no hana kagatobi ("Flowers of the Theatrical World"), published between 1920 and 1922. One of these is shown on the right, signed Toyonari ga and sealed in the lower left margin Yamamura. It depicts the actor Kataoka Nizaemon XI (1857-1934) as Sakaida Kakiemon in the play Meikô Kakiemon ("Famous Artisan Kakiemon"), first staged at the Kabuki-za, Tokyo, in November 1912. - Viewing Japanese Prints