Utagawa Kunisada Biography

Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist and one of the most prolific designers of colour woodblock prints during the Edo period. Born in Edo, now Tokyo, he entered the workshop of Utagawa Toyokuni I, from whom he learnt the conventions of actor portraits and prints of fashionable women.

Kunisada began publishing designs in the early nineteenth century. His works include portraits of kabuki performers, scenes of courtesans, illustrations of literary subjects and images of everyday customs. He was particularly successful in portraying theatrical celebrities and the elaborate costumes worn on stage.

His Courtesan in a Morning Glory Robe reflects the fashion and decorative imagery of the pleasure quarters. The Winter print from Shiki no uchi (Four Seasons) belongs to a series exploring seasonal themes. The National Gallery of Victoria dates its impression of Winter to approximately 1830.

Kunisada often employed saturated colours, rhythmic outlines and carefully described patterned textiles. He worked with publishers and woodblock cutters whose collective efforts enabled designs to be printed in substantial numbers. His imagery offers detailed evidence of fashion, entertainment and popular culture in nineteenth-century Japan. His contemporary Andō Hiroshige worked in the same ukiyo-e tradition, although he is particularly associated with landscape prints.

In 1844 he adopted the professional name Toyokuni III, although the numbering of artists using the Toyokuni name has varied in historical accounts. He continued to produce prints into the 1860s and influenced numerous pupils and followers within the Utagawa school.

Kunisada died in Edo in January 1865. His enormous output and popularity made him a central figure in the commercial woodblock print culture of his time.