Posted by Alan A. on December 28, 1998 at 14:24:11:
In Reply to: Collaborating artists? posted by Roger on December 27, 1998 at 19:01:42:
There are examples of triptychs in which different artists collaborated on the final product. A famous example is one by Toyohiro in which Toyokuni drew the kauki figures. Kunisada and Hiroshige also have a number of triptychs they did together, with Kunisada adding the figures to Hiroshige's landscape.
Much more common though was a single artist signing his work in different ways on each sheet. As you probably know, Edo artists had multiple names, and I've seen many triptychs with three different signatures of the same artist (as well as the -Ga, -Zu -Hitsu suffixes you mentioned, which suggests to me it probably is one artist.) If you could post a scan, that would make it easier to identify what's happening on yours.
: I am trying to identify a triptych...one probably from the 1860's and showing a
: battle scene...well pre-Tokugawa. A problem I'm having is that each sheet has a
: different artist's name. They are exceedingly hard to read..but might include
: Yoshikata and Yoshitora. Each name stamp has a different "verb", that is, one
: is fude, one ga, and one zu. The whole triptych is a unified picture...no evi-
: dence that a committee was at work.
: As far as I know, the two named artists are quite possible designers of such a
: subject and of the rather uninspired style it is done in.
: Is it possible that as many as three artists colaborated on single pictures? Any
: help would be appreciated.