Utagawa Kunisada

Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III, was one of the most distinguished Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock artists in the 19th century. Born in 1786 in the Honjo district of Edo, now Tokyo, Kunisuda’s early talent for sketching and drawing impressed Utagawa Toyokuni of the Utagawa school. He was made an apprentice at the dominant ukiyo-e printmaking school in 1800, and became popular since the first publication of his work in 1807. Kunisada was well-known in his contemporary time for his bijin-ga—“beautiful women”—prints, and his reputation flourished from his erotic portraits of women. His woodblock designs mainly portray traditional subjects, namely kabuki theaters, historical scenes, erotic prints and women. Kunisada remains the most commercially successful and a major “trendsetter” in the history of Japanese ukiyo-e art.