Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865) was one of the most successful designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in the 19th century, even surpassing his contemporaries Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Kuniyoshi.
Interestingly, while Hokusai was always held in high regard by foreign collectors, at the end of the Edo period (1603-1868) the other three were felt to be vastly inferior. However, in the 1930s, Hiroshige was reevalued, and in the 1970s, the works of Kuniyoshi followed and both began to be regarded as masters of the art just like Hokusai. Only Kunisada had to wait until the 1990s, when his reputation in the West was aligned with that of the Japanese.
About 60% of Kunisada’s works are prints of kabuki actors and scenes, another 15% are bijin-ga, images of beautiful women, and for some 15 years, he dominated portraits of sumo wrestlers and effectively a monopoly on scenes from “The Tale of Genji”. Here are some of his prints.
