Utagawa Kuniyoshi was born on January 1, 1798 in Tokyo, Japan, the son of a silk-dyer. It is said that Kuniyoshi was impressed, at an early age of seven or eight, by ukiyo-e warrior prints, and by pictures of artisans and commoners (as depicted in craftsmen manuals), and it is possible those influenced his own later prints.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi apparently assisted his father's business as a pattern designer, and some have suggested that this experience influenced his rich use of color and textile patterns in prints. Yoshisaburō proved his drawing talents at the age of 12, quickly attracting the attention of the famous ukiyo-e print master Utagawa Toyokuni. He remained his apprentice until 1814.
In 1814 Utagawa Kuniyoshi was given the name "Kuniyoshi" and set out as an independent artist. Between 1815 and 1817 he created a number of book illustrations for yomihon, kokkeibon, gōkan, and hanashibon, and printed his stand-alone full-color prints of "kabuki" actors and warriors.
Despite his promising debut, the young Kuniyoshi failed to produce many works between 1818 and 1827, probably due to a lack of commissions from publishers, and the competition of other artists within the Utagawa school (Utagawa-ryū). His economic situation turned desperate at one point when he was forced to sell used tatami mats.
During the 1820s, Kuniyoshi produced a number of heroic triptychs that showed the first signs of an individual style. In 1827 he received his first major commission for the series, "One hundred and eight heroes of the popular Suikoden all told", based on the incredibly popular Chinese tale, the "Shuihu Zhuan." In that series Kuniyoshi illustrated individual heroes on single-sheets, drawing tattoos on his heroes, a novelty which soon influenced Edo fashion. The "Suikoden" series became extremely popular in Edo, and the demand for Kuniyoshi’s warrior prints increased, gaining him entrance into the major ukiyō-e and literary circles.
He continued to produce warrior prints, drawing much of his subjects from war tales such as "Tale of the Heike" and "The rise and fall of the Minamoto and the Taira." His warrior prints were unique in that they depicted legendary popular figures with an added stress on dreams, ghostly apparitions, omens, and superhuman feats. Kuniyoshi often incorporated images of his own cats in his paintings and prints, sometimes hiding a small image of one of the animals in the final design.
The "Tenpō reforms" of 1841 - 1843 aimed to alleviate the economic crisis by controlling public displays of luxury and wealth, and the illustration of courtesans and actors in ukiyō-e was officially banned at that time. That may have had some influence on Kuniyoshi’s production of caricature prints or comic pictures, which were used to disguise actual actors and courtesans. He was arrested on a morals charge in 1842 but walked away from the encounter after paying a simple fine.
During the decade leading up to the reforms, Kuniyoshi also produced landscape prints (fūkeiga), which were outside the bounds of censorship and catered to the rising popularity of personal travel in late Edo Japan. Kuniyoshi also produced during that time works of purely natural subject matter, notably of animals, birds, and fish that mimicked traditional Japanese and Chinese painting. Kuniyoshi used at least thirteen different aliases on the work he created, and some believe he went by other names not yet identified.
In 1856 Kuniyoshi suffered from palsy, which caused him much difficulty in moving his limbs. It is said that his works from that point onward were noticeably weaker in the use of line and overall vitality. Before his death in 1861, Kuniyoshi was able to witness the opening of the port city of Yokohama to foreigners, and in 1860 produced two works depicting Westerners in the city. He died at the age of 65 in April 1861 in his home in Genyadana.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi is known for depictions of the battles of legendary samurai heroes. He established his fame as the designer of “warrior prints” with his series of prints entitled "Tsūzoku Suikoden gōketsu hyakuhachinin" (“One Hundred and Eight Popular Warrior Heroes from Shui-hu ch’uan”), published in 1827.
Cats suggested as the fifty three stations of the Tokaido
Strings for night firing
Kaji of Gion holding a fan
One of the daughters of the dragon king who lives in the bottom of the sea
Roshi Ensei lifting a heavy beam
Sceleton
Benkei holding a halberd
Fundação Cultural Ema Gordon Klabin
Kagehisa and Yoshitada wrestling
Hattara Sonja with his white tiger
Amakasu Omi no Kami
Suikoden Series
A person as a person should be
Station 38
Prince Hanzoku terrorised by a nine-tailed fox
Scrbbling on the Storehouse Wall
A man
Onodera junai Hidetomo shading his eyes
Prince Shôtoku
Hatakeyama sitting next to a Go board
Hanagami Danjo no jo Arakage fighting a giant salamander
Lacquered boxes against rain
Pilgrims at the Roben waterfall Oyama
Benkei dragging the Miidera bell up a mountain
Heroes of China and Japan
Banners for the boys festival
Yorimasa shooting at the monster Nuye
Lingering snow at Ishiyama
Hatsuhana doing penance under the Tonosawa waterfall
Autumn
Oniwakamaru and the Giant Carp Fighting Underwater
Caga no Chiyo standing beside a well
Miyamoto Musashi, Edo period
Courtesan and Her Maiko
Four cats in different poses
Neve, the moon is chilling
Half-legth portrait of Bazui Chobel
Animated Gourd
Priest Nichiren praying under the storm
Hatakeyama Shigetada
Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido: Warabi, Inuyama Dosetsu, Edo period
Shakuhachi player
Animals dyeing fabrics
Island Enoshima. The Fuji can be seen far away
Minamoto Yorimitsu also known as Raiko
Sasaki Takatsuna fording the Uji river
Pilgrims in the waterfall
Suhara
Rape scene
Kamigashihime stabbing a giant spider
Shutsudoko Doi
Nakamura
Nichiren saved from the executioners sword
Portrait of Daruma
A samurai overwhelming a giant serpent
People stopping to admire the gourd that miraculously appeared at the time of the birth of Prince Shôtoku
Elephant catching a flying tengu
Saito Oniwakamaru
Mount Fuji
Sharks
Black carp
A fierce depiction of Uesugi Kenshin seated
In the Waves at Kakuda enroute to Sado Island, Edo period
Lobster
Returning boats at Tsukushi
Nichiren going into exile on the island of Sado
High Noon at Kasumigaseki
Sculptor Jingoro surrounded by statues
Saito Toshimoto and a warrior in a underwater struggle
Horibe Yahei Kamaru parrying a spear thrust
Suikoden Series
Night rain at Narumi
Sailing boat
Ishi-jo, wife of Oboshi Yoshio, one of the loyal ronin
Keyamura Rokusuke under the Hikosan Gongen waterfall
Kyumonryu Shinshin and Chokanko Chintasu
Hasebe Nobutsura during the taira attack on the takakura palace
Okabe - The cat witch
Even thought she looks old, she is young
Kagesue, Takatsuna and Shigetada crossing the Uji river
Li Hayata Hironao grappling with the monster
Courtesan in training
Nozarashi Gosuke carrying a long sword
Ishiyakushi
Minamoto Yoshiie at the Nakoso barrier
Fusehime saving Inue Shimbyoe Masahi from a thunderboit
Actors
In order to escape from Moriya who ambushed him Prince Shôtoku vanishes into a tree on which his shadowy form appears
Hara Hayato no Sho holding a spear
At first glance he looks very fierce, but he's really a nice person
Kôteiken
Depicting the characters from the Chushingura
Paragons of Filial Piety
Saitogo Kunitake, Japanese actor
Caulking boats
Eight Hundred Heroes of Our Country
Thirty-six Famous Battles
Ochanomizu
Kuroda Ukinaga, Japanese actor
Mongaku doing penace at the Nachi waterfall
Heroes of China and Japan
Station Hodogaya through Hiratsuka
Senkaji Chao wringing out his loincloth
Cats forming the caracters for catfish
Oniwakamaru about to kill the giant carp
Suikoden Triptych the Fishermen
Man on a boat
Nine tailed fox Tamamo no Mae, under her beautiful human form (down)
Design the Struggle
Heikea japonica, The ghost of Taira Tomomori along with the anchor he drowned with, and heikegani with faces of fallen soldiers
Catfish
Heavy rain
A man confronted with an apparition of the Fox goddess
Musashi on the back of a whale
Nissaka Man receiving a child from a ghost
Miyamoto Musashi killing a giant
New edition of the life of a hundred generals
Moso hunting for bamboo shoots
Minori - The mortally wounded Taira Tomomori with ahuge anchor
Samurai Yazama Kihei Mitsunobu
Shoki and Demon, Edo period
Hawk
Osho catching a carp
Dragon
From Suikoden of Japanese Heroes
Legend, The great ships full of boys and girls sent in search of the immortal medicine
Hotei, one of the seven Gods of good fortune
Tokiwa-Gozen with her three children in the snow
Opening shellfish at Fukagawa
Raiko tormented by the earth spider
Self-portrait of the Shunga album
Honjo Shigenaga parrying an exploding shell
Otsu-e Paintings Coming Alive Triptych
Mountain
Dipicting the characters from the Chushingura
Catfish
Sato Tadanobu, a samurai of the Twelfth Century, Defending Himself with a Goban, when Attacked by His Enemies
Hata Rokurozaemon with his dog
Kajiwara Genda Kagesue for Umegae
Samurai and the conquered
Oniwakamaru preparing to kill a giant carp
Courtesan and Her Maiko
Red Carp under wisteria
Eight Hundred Heroes of Our Country
Kyusenpo Sacucho charging throught the snow on a black stallion
Apparition of the monstrous cat
Kansaki Yagoro Noriyasu seen behind a transparent screen
Hotei
Depicting the characters from the Chushingura
Ferryman
Mount Fuji from the Sumida River embankment
Horse, Soga Goro on a rearing horse
Fuwa Katsuemon
A shapeshifting cat
A record of origins of the great country of Japan
A beauty with a face brush
Kamei Rokuro and the Black Bear in the Snow
Sakata Kintoki struggling with a Huge Carp in a Waterfall
Faces
Homing geese at Kanagawa
Lady Kayo
Stingrays
Koga Saburo, suspendeding a basket, watching a dragon
Konseimao hanzui beset by demons
Portrait of Chicasei Goyô
Mitsukuni Defying the Skeleton Spectre Invoked by Princess Takiyasha
Satsuma Taira Tadanori for Suzumushi
Osho Catches Fish for his Stepmother
Depicting the characters from the Chushingura
Sosan returning to his mother
A cat dressed as a woman tapping the head of an octopus
Kuzunoha
Lightning emanation from the great tree that Kawabe no Omi is about to fell for Prince Shôtoku
A street prostitute
Homing geese at the Northern capital
Oki no Jiro Hiroari killing a monstrous tengu
Showing activity on several floors at the same time
Shimamura Danjo Takanori riding the waves on the backs of large crabs
Prince Shôtoku directing the attack on Moriya's castle
Kotenrai Ryioshin loading a cannon
Happinata Koju on a rearing horse
A seated woman sewing a kimono
Seaweed Gatherers at Omari
At the shore of the Sumida river
Heroes of China and Japan
Sotoku invoking a thunder storm
Suikoden Series
Moon
Bijin with a dog in the snow
A Snowstorm at Kinryozan Temple
Clearing water at Horikawa
Half-legth portrait of Goshaku Somegoro
Mongaku Shonin
Shoriko kaei shooting a wild goose
People join together to form another person
Octopus, Red Fish
Depicting the characters from the Chushingura
Actor
Utagawa Kuniyoshi was a member of the Utagawa school.
