Background
Utagawa Kunisada was born in 1786 in Honjo, Akita, Japan. His father, who was an amateur poet of some renown, died in the year after his birth. While growing up, he developed an early talent for painting and drawing.
Utagawa Kunisada was born in 1786 in Honjo, Akita, Japan. His father, who was an amateur poet of some renown, died in the year after his birth. While growing up, he developed an early talent for painting and drawing.
His early sketches impressed Toyokuni, the great master of the Utagawa school and prominent designer of kabuki and actor-portrait prints. In the year 1800 or shortly thereafter Kunisada was accepted by Toyokuni I as an apprentice in his workshop.
In keeping with a tradition of Japanese relations between master and apprentice, Utagawa was given the official artist name of "KUNI-sada", the first character of which was derived from the second part of the name of his teacher "Toyo-KUNI."
His first known print dates to the year 1807; however his further full-sized prints appear starting only in 1809 – 1810. In 1808 he had already begun working as an illustrator of woodblock print illustrated books and his popularity rapidly increased. Kunisada's first actor portraits appeared in either 1808 or 1809. It is known that his first bijin-ga series and a series of pentaptychs of urban scenes of Edo, appear also in 1809. By 1813 he had risen as a "master" in the constellation of Edo's artistic world; a contemporary list of the most important ukiyo-e artists places him in second place behind Toyokuni I.
Beginning around 1810 Kunisada used the studio name "Gototei", which refered to his father's ferry-boat business. Until 1824 that signature appeared on nearly all of his kabuki designs. Around 1825 the new studio name "Kochoro" appeared, and was often used on prints not related to kabuki. In 1844, he finally adopted the name of his master Toyokuni I, and for a brief time used the signature "Kunisada becoming Toyokuni II." Starting in 1844 - 1845, all of his prints were signed "Toyokuni", partially with the addition of other studio names as prefixes, such as "Kochoro" and "Ichiyosai." Kunisada remained one of the "trendsetters" of the Japanese woodblock print until his death in early 1865. Kunisada died in the same neighborhood in which he had been born.
Utagawa was probably the most prolific of all the painters and printmakers of the ukiyo-e movement. He was particularly known for his erotically decadent portraits of women, executed with a powerful, free style. His masterpiece is a series of illustrations for "Nise murasaki inaka genji", a parody by Ryūtei Tanehiko of "The Tale of Genji."
Ronins attack on the house of lord Kira (left panel of a triptych)
Tokaido 53 Stations, Station #2, Shinagawa
Father and Son Members of the Forty Seven Rônin from Chûshingura
The Actor in Female Role
Dietary Life Rules
Kagamiiwa Hamanosuke, sumo wrestler
Under the Covers
Closing the Screen
Shūka Bandō I as Shirabyōshi Hanako, Kichisaburō Arashi III as Konkara Bō, and Sanjūrō Seki III as Seitaka Bō (Kyō-ganoko Musume Dōjō-ji)
The Hand Mirror
Hinasuke Arashi as Goemon Ishikawa
Fifty three Stages of the Tokaido (Tokaido Gojusan)
The Actor Playing a Farmer
Sexual Life Rules
Mitate
On the Stairs
The Actor
Tokaido 53 Stations, #D
Foreplay on a Red Futon
The Actor
Surimono
View of Fuji from Miho Bay, May
The Blue Futon
Tokaido 53 Stations, Station #45, Ishiyakushi
Tokaido 53 Stations, Station #3, Kawasaki
The Actor Ichikawa Kodanji IV as Subashiri no Kumagoro
Genji
Surimono
The Ghost
The Brown Futon
The Actor in the Ichikawa Family
Woman Catching a Packet, from the series Stories from the Han and Chu in Two Parts (Kanso ni ban no uchi)
Kanadehon Chūshingura
Four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
The Samurai
Snowy landscape with a woman brandishing a broom and a man holding an umbrella
Tokaido 53 Stations, #C
Seascape
Before the Window
The Actor Kawarazaki Gonjuro I as Osarabakuzo Denji
Sumo
Ichikawa Danjûrô as Unno Kotarô Yukiuji (Disguised as Yamagatsu Buô) from a Kamoise at the Ichmuraza Theatre
The Red and Gold Blanket
Kawarazaki Gonjuro and Kunitaro Hitomaru
Yoshiwara
Foreplay Under the Futon
Tokaido 53 Stations, Station #5, Hodogaya
Night snow scene at Motonoyanagi Bridge
Lesbians having sex by a harikata (dildo)
The fight
The Mosquito Netting
Beneath the Stairs
Goemon Ishikawa and his son Goroichi
Tiger
The High-ranking Courtesan
A Crab on the Seashore
The Actor Reading a Scroll
Portrait of Hiroshige
Ichikawa Danjuro VII and Bando Mitsugoro III as Soga no Goro and Asaina no Saburo
Tokaido 53 Stations, Station #44, Yokkaichi
Ichikawa Danjuro VII as Iga-no Jutaro
Portrait of the actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII in the role of Jiraiya, the thief and the magician. He wears a black kimono with large gray dots.
The Book
Ichikawa Danjuro VII Wielding an Axe wearing a White haired Wig
Ohnomatsu Midorinosuke
The Kabuki Actor Kawaharazaki Gonjuro as Kagekiyo
Sumo wrestler Somagahana Fuchiemon
Playing Cards
Actor as Nikki Danjo
Moonlight View of Tsukuda with Lady on a Balcony
Tokaido 53 Stations, A
The Spectre
The Actor Kataoka Nizaemon VIII as Kumokiri Nizaemon
Komachi washing Soshi
The Kabuki actor Kawarasaki Gonjūrō I
Sumo
The Letter
Sumo Spectators
Ichikawa Danjuro VII in His Dressing Room
Quotes from others about the person
This very undistinguished artist was one of the most prolific of the ukiyo-e school. All that meaningless complexity of design, coarseness of colour, and carelessness of printing which we associate with the final ruin of the art of colour-prints finds full expression with him.
