Kunisada Utagawa, “Archer Katsuta Taketaka”, Edo Period, 1603-1868, Color Woodblock Print, 37.3 x 25.8 cm, Private Collection
Kunisada Utagawa (歌川 国貞), also known as Sandai Utagawa Toyokuni (三代 歌川 豊国), was considered the most popular and prolific Japanese ukiyo-e color woodblock artist in nineteenth-century Japan. His reputation far exceeded that of his contemporaries Andō Hiroshigo, Katsushika Hokusai, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi, all great masters of the tradition.
Details of Kunisada’s life are scarce; however, he was born in Honjo, an eastern district of Edo with the given name of Sumida Shōgorō IX (角田庄五朗). His family owned a small licensed ferry boat service which provided income for him to engage in painting and drawing. Kunisada’s early work impressed Utagawa Toyokuni, a distinguished master of ukiyo-e 
kabuki actor prints and second head of the famous Utagawa school of woodblock artists. Circa 1800, Kunisada was accepted as an apprentice in Toyokuni’s workshop and, keeping the tradition of master/apprentice, was given the name Kunisada (国貞).
Utagawa Kunisada’s early full-sized prints began to appear in 1809-1810. He was already an illustrator of e-hon, woodblock print illustrated books, in 1809 and was considered at least the equal to his teacher Toyokuni in regards to book illustrations. Kunisada was at this time creating actor portraits and urban scenes of Edo. By 1813, he was positioned in second place behind Toyokuni on a list of the most important ukiyo-e artists in Japan. Utagawa Kunisada would remain one of the trendsettters of Japanese woodblock printing until his death in january of 1865, on the fifteenth day of the twelfth month of the First Year of Genji.
Notes: For the woodblock print illustrated in the header, Utagawa Kunisada used the kabuki actor Iwai Shijaku I as the model for archer Katsuta Shinzaemon Takekata. Iwai Shijaku I, also known as Iwai Hanshirō VII, was the oldest son of Iwai Hanshirō V and a frequent model for works by Kunisada. Born in 1804, Shijaku I died in 1845.
Insert Image: Kunisada Utagawa, “Kabuki, Chushingura Act 11”, 1864/1865, Color Woodblock Ptint, “Seichu Gishi Den (Biographies of Loyal and Faithful Samurai” Series, Private Collection
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