Fujiwara no Kiyomasa / Mitate sanjurokkasen no uchi

Fujiwara no Kiyomasa, from Mitate Sanjūrokkasen no Uchi, is a print by Utagawa Toyokuni recorded on the union archive ukiyo-e.org with an impression in the British Museum. The series title designates a parody, or mitate, of the Sanjūrokkasen, the canonical Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry. By the late Edo period, the form of pairing classical poets with figures from contemporary life, including Kabuki actors and courtesans, had become a standard exercise for Edo ukiyo-e designers. Each sheet would name a poet of the Heian-era anthology while showing a present-day stand-in, generating a layered meaning that rewarded literary as well as theatrical knowledge. Toyokuni here associates one of his subjects with Fujiwara no Kiyomasa, an aristocrat-poet of the canon, giving the chosen figure—often, in his output, an actor—the prestige and erudite color of the classical world. The format consolidated the Utagawa school's interest in cross-cutting reference, where the worlds of poetry, Kabuki, and the pleasure quarter could be brought into a single visual register. The British Museum impression catalogued through ukiyo-e.org is the source for the present record. Within Toyokuni's broader practice the print exemplifies how yakusha-e and bijin-ga conventions could be elevated by allusive series titles, turning a single sheet into an object of layered cultural play for Edo's literate consumers.