This shini-e (memorial portrait) commemorates the death of the ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), known posthumously as Toyokuni III. Designed by his student Kunimaro I, the portrait is accompanied by a death poem (jisei) composed by Kunisada himself.

The print is dated according to the traditional Japanese lunisolar calendar: the 15th day of the 12th month in the first year of Genji (1864), marked by the cyclical date of “elder brother wood” in the year of the rat. The inscription includes Kunisada’s posthumous Buddhist name, Toyokuni-in teishōga senshin daikōji, and notes his burial at Komyoji Temple of the Tendai sect in Kameido (Tendaishū Kōmyōji sō).

The accompanying jisei expresses Kunisada’s spiritual resignation and faith in Amida Buddha:

Ikko ni

Mida e makaseshi

ki no yasusa

tada nanigoto mo

Namu Amida Butsu!

I have entrusted everything to Mida,

my soul is at ease no matter what happens

– Homage to Amida Buddha!

The poem is signed by Kunisada with his age at the time of death: Nanajūkyū ō Toyokuni rōjin ("At the age of seventy-nine, the old man Toyokuni").

Reference: Laura Mueller, Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School, 2007, cat. 193, p. 203.