Biography
Kunisada
was born in the 1786 in the Honjo district of Edo. His father died in the
year of Kunisada’s birth. With the travel of the family from one province
to another (mainly due to the early demise of the father), we know nothing
about his sisters, brothers, nor family members as a whole. We do know that
Kunisada lived during the Kansei era (1789-1801). This era produced some of
the best Ukiyo-e artists, like Utamaro or Kunisada’s future teacher and
founder of the Utagawa School Toyokuni I.
By the age of 19, he was under the
tutelage of Toyokuni and gaining recognition for his talent in reproduction
of pictures. Soon, Kunisada gain a repreatation as a popular actors-picture
artist. Kunisada’s bijin-ga (beautiful lady prints) catapulted his fame
as one of the most influential artist of the time.
His approach to the realism
of the beauty of women in everyday life deviated from the popular form of
Utamaro. Kunisada incorporated the landscape as well as the beauty of the
female into his prints. In Utamaro’s work, backgrounds are mainly non-existent
with sole emphasis on the idealized feminine beauty.
Kunisada’s artistic
realism consistently adorned his future works. It is often said that when
people said, “Ukiyo-e”, no breath was wasted before their next word,
“Kunisada”. In 1844, Kunisada changed his name to Toyokuni III.
He did this in recognition of his deceased teacher (Toyokuni I), which ignored
the prior claim of Toyokuni I’s adopted son Gosotei Toyokuni.