# Three Kabuki Actors Playing Hanetsuki

**Utagawa Kuniyasu** (Japanese, 1794–1834)  
ca. 1823  
Triptych of woodblock prints (surimono); ink and color on paper  
Triptych, each: 7 1/4 x 8 3/8 in. (18.4 x 21.3 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.715.4a–c. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/63358).

## About this work

Utagawa Kuniyasu designed this in about 1823, aged about 19. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Surimono.** Privately commissioned Japanese prints, often New Year greetings, made in small runs on thick paper with metallic pigments and blind embossing, and usually paired with poems.
- **Colour woodblock print.** In Japan these were a team effort. The artist drew the design, a carver cut it into cherry-wood blocks, one block for each colour, and a printer brushed on the pigment and rubbed each sheet by hand. Full-colour prints of this kind were called nishiki-e, “brocade pictures”, from the 1760s on.
- **Triptych.** Three sheets designed to sit side by side and read as one wide picture.

### [Utagawa Kuniyasu](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/utagawa-kuniyasu)

Japanese, 1794–1834

## Facts

- Type: Prints
- Culture: Japan
- The artist was about 19
- Real size: about 7 × 8½ in (18 × 21 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Ukiyo-e](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/ukiyo-e)
- Subjects: Men, Women, Actors
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/962.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/962/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/three-kabuki-actors-playing-hanetsuki-met-63358).