Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Japanese artist
original name Igusa Magosaburō
born Jan. 1, 1798, Kanda, Edo 【now Tokyo】
died April 14, 1861, Edo
Japanese painter and printmaker of the ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”) movement.
Like his rival Utagawa Kunisada, Kuniyoshi was a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni. He established his fame as the designer of musha-e (“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 about 1827. He also produced landscapes, frequently using Western perspective. Among the most famous of these are the 10-print series “Tōto meisho” (“Famous Sights of Edo”) and the five-print series “Tōto Fujimi sanjūrokkei” (“Thirty-six Sites in Edo Overlooking Mount Fuji”).