Gatōken Shunshi was a designer of ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

 Japanese woodblock prints

Woodblock printing in Japan

Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...

 in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 who was active from about 1820 to 1828. He was a student of Shunkōsai Hokushū

Shunkosai Hokushu

Shunkōsai Hokushū , who is also known as Shunkō IV, was a designer of ukiyo-e style Japanese woodblock prints in Osaka who was active from about 1802 to 1832....

 and the teacher of Gakōken Shunshi. Gatōken Shunshi is best known for his portraits of the kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 actors, especially the star Onoe Tamizō II.

Other artists names Shunshi

There are three other, less well known, ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

 artists called “Shunshi” in English, although each is written with different kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

:

• 春子 Seiyōsai Shunshi, also known as Shun’yōsai Shunshi, active 1826-8. Possibly an early name of Hokumyō.
• 春枝 Gakōken Shunshi, a student of Gatōken Shunshi, active in the mid-1820s
• 春始 a student of Gatōken Shunshi, active in the 1830s