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Shunshô's student [[Katsukawa Shunko|Shunkô]] (1743-1812) continued his master's tradition and style, and devoted himself more exclusively to actor prints, becoming one of the first to produce large-scale headshot portraits of individual actors. Whereas previous actor prints almost always depicted the full actor, head to toe, and thus represented the role and the costume just as much as the actor, these focused in upon the individual actors' idiosyncrasies and features, becoming true portraits. This form would be continued by many artists after him, including the great masters [[Sharaku]] and [[Kitagwa Utamaro|Utamaro]]. [[Katsukawa Shuncho|Katsukawa Shunchô]], [[Katsukawa Shun'ei|Shun'ei]] and [[Hokusai]] were among other students of the Katsukawa school.
Shunshô's student [[Katsukawa Shunko|Shunkô]] (1743-1812) continued his master's tradition and style, and devoted himself more exclusively to actor prints, becoming one of the first to produce large-scale headshot portraits of individual actors. Whereas previous actor prints almost always depicted the full actor, head to toe, and thus represented the role and the costume just as much as the actor, these focused in upon the individual actors' idiosyncrasies and features, becoming true portraits. This form would be continued by many artists after him, including the great masters [[Sharaku]] and [[Kitagwa Utamaro|Utamaro]]. [[Katsukawa Shuncho|Katsukawa Shunchô]], [[Katsukawa Shun'ei|Shun'ei]] and [[Hokusai]] were among other students of the Katsukawa school.
Pointing to the absence of publishers' seals on many actor prints (particularly those by the Katsukawa school), some scholars have suggested that such prints may have been chiefly sold or given out at Kabuki theatres or ''[[shibai jaya]]'' (teahouses associated with the theatres), or distributed to and within fan clubs, rather than sold at commercial print shops. Some have suggested, however, that the publisher's mark may have simply been omitted for the sake of the design, and it is difficult to know if they were indeed not typically sold in regular shops.<ref>Timothy Clark, "Edo Kabuki in the 1780s," ''The Actor's Image'', Art Institute of Chicago (1994), 45.</ref>
==Maturation==
==Maturation==
[[Image:Hiroshige - Tokaido53 Seki.jpg|right|thumb|300px|''Seki'', from the series ''Fifty-Three Stations of the Tôkaidô'' by [[Hiroshige]].]]
[[Image:Hiroshige - Tokaido53 Seki.jpg|right|thumb|300px|''Seki'', from the series ''Fifty-Three Stations of the Tôkaidô'' by [[Hiroshige]].]]
Both of these artists, along with their students and others around them, produced a wide variety of works, both paintings and prints, ''bijinga'', actor prints, images of sumo wrestlers, ''[[shunga]]'', and genre scenes, but eventually came to be best known for their landscapes. Their most well-known works, Hokusai's ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' and Hiroshige's ''Fifty-Three Stations of the [[Tokaido|Tôkaidô]]'', are representative of their landscape work in general, which made extensive use of Western perspective, pigments, and stylistic elements. Though some of these works appear to depart dramatically from ''ukiyo-e's'' focus on people and urban scenes, in fact the majority of these pieces are intended to emphasize the people in the prints, within their context; these works also fit quite neatly into a larger trend of Edo period travel literature and artwork, depicting Mt. Fuji, sites along the Tôkaidô road and other famous travel sites. These could serve the collectors either as reminders of the sights they enjoyed on their journeys or, more commonly, as substitutes for those who couldn't or didn't make the journeys at all.
Both of these artists, along with their students and others around them, produced a wide variety of works, both paintings and prints, ''bijinga'', actor prints, images of sumo wrestlers, ''[[shunga]]'', and genre scenes, but eventually came to be best known for their landscapes. Their most well-known works, Hokusai's ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' and Hiroshige's ''Fifty-Three Stations of the [[Tokaido|Tôkaidô]]'', are representative of their landscape work in general, which made extensive use of Western perspective, pigments, and stylistic elements. Though some of these works appear to depart dramatically from ''ukiyo-e's'' focus on people and urban scenes, in fact the majority of these pieces are intended to emphasize the people in the prints, within their context; these works also fit quite neatly into a larger trend of Edo period travel literature and artwork, depicting Mt. Fuji, sites along the Tôkaidô road and other famous travel sites. These could serve the collectors either as reminders of the sights they enjoyed on their journeys or, more commonly, as substitutes for those who couldn't or didn't make the journeys at all.
In [[1842]], the shogunate banned the production of prints depicting kabuki actors or courtesans, an attempt to forcibly elevate the moral character of materials in circulation. Such prints continued to be issued, but this edict nevertheless gave a boost to the sub-genre of prints depicting historical and literary themes, including especially images of great heroes of history, legend, and literature - the specialty of Utagawa Kuniyoshi and several other Utagawa school artists.<ref>Guth, 118.</ref>
==Decline==
==Decline==