Utagawa Kuniyoshi · 1798–1861
Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Utagawa Kuniyoshi was a late Edo-period ukiyo-e artist and a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni I. His powerful warrior prints won popularity and earned him the title "Kuniyoshi of warrior prints," and he also made actor prints, beauty prints, landscapes, and comic pictures.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi was born in 1798 and died in 1861. He was a late Edo-period ukiyo-e artist. A picture of Shoki that he drew around the age of 12 caught the eye of Utagawa Toyokuni I, and he soon entered Toyokuni's studio. Among his fellow pupils under Toyokuni were Kunimasa, Kunisada, and Kunitora.
His twenties were a hard period, but when he published "One of the 108 Heroes of the Popular Water Margin" around the age of 31, it became popular, and he was called "Kuniyoshi of warrior prints."
He could do anything, including actor prints, beauty prints, and landscapes, but it was above all his warrior prints and historical pictures in panoramic three-sheet compositions, and his witty comic pictures, that won the public. With a generous, boss-like personality, he gathered many talented pupils, including Ochiai Yoshiiku, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, and Kawanabe Kyosai. His works include "The Old Palace at Soma" and "Looks Fearsome, but He's Really a Nice Person."
