Utagawa Kunisada and Utagawa Kuniyoshi — The Two Giants of Late-Edo Ukiyo-e and the Age of Warrior Prints

The Utagawa School — the Giant School of Late-Edo Ukiyo-e

The Utagawa school was the greatest school of ukiyo-e from the late Edo era through the bakumatsu (end of the shogunate). It begins with the founder Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814), and its disciples reached several hundred; by the end of the Edo, more than 80% of Edo ukiyo-e were being made by the Utagawa school.

Main lineage:

• First-generation Toyokuni (1769-1825) — disciple of Toyoharu, rose to fame with actor prints
• Second-generation Toyokuni — a short period
• Kunisada (1786-1865) = later Toyokuni III
• Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)
• Hiroshige (1797-1858) — the landscape painter treated in the previous article
• Disciples like Kunimasa, Kunihisa, Kuniteru

Kunisada and Kuniyoshi were fellow disciples of the first-generation Toyokuni. But their styles took entirely opposite paths.

Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) — the King of Mass Production

Life

• 1786, born at Honjo Itsutsu-me (present-day Kōtō-ku), Edo
• His father was a shareholder in a ferry, a relatively well-off family
• Childhood name Sumita Shōgorō
• 1800 (age 15), entered under first-generation Utagawa Toyokuni
• 1807 (age 22), independent under the name “Kunisada”
• 1844, succeeded to the name Toyokuni III
• December 12, 1865, died at 79

Overwhelming Productivity

Kunisada is one of the most prolific painters in ukiyo-e history:

• Over 20,000 lifetime prints
• Center of gravity in bijin-ga, actor prints, and gesaku illustrations
• Thousands of illustrated books
• Organized disciples and a workshop into a state close to “workshop production”

Though often criticized as “quantity over quality,” this was in fact the result of responding to the demand of the Edo ukiyo-e market. In the late Edo, Edo publishers needed to issue new prints every month, and Kunisada and his workshop bore the main force.

Style — Bijin-ga and Actor Prints

Kunisada’s areas of strength:

1. Bijin-ga

• Inherits the lineage of the ōkubi-e after Utamaro
• Contemporary beauty with narrow chin, narrow eyes
• Precise description of the details of makeup, hairstyle, and kimono
• Snow scenes, cherry-blossom viewing, moon viewing and other seasonal pictures

2. Actor Prints

• The stage pictures (three-sheet compositions, etc.) of kabuki
• Recreating scenes of the stage on a large surface
• The similitude of the actor is precise
• Not only the face but costume, props, and background are drawn with care

Representative Series

Bijin Tōkaidō (1830s)

A series that turned women of each post station into subjects, inspired by Hiroshige’s Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi. 55 pictures. Kunisada’s Tōkaidō version.

Genji Kōshū Yojō (1857-1861)

A bijin-ga series derived from the illustrations of the popular Edo-era novel Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji (by Ryūtei Tanehiko, 1829-1842). A story that reset Heian’s Tale of Genji in Edo, and a representative series of Kunisada’s bijin-ga.

Ōshibai — Gakuya Raku (Bakumatsu)

A rare series that depicts the backstage of kabuki. Depicts actors’ private lives.

Succession to Toyokuni III

• 1844 (age 58), accompanying the death of second-generation Toyokuni, he succeeded to Toyokuni III
• With this, became head of the Utagawa school
• Afterward, many works are also under the name Toyokuni (III)

In modern scholarship, “Toyokuni III = Kunisada” is often written. To avoid confusion.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) — the Painter of Innovation

Life

• Born in 1798, in the family of a dyer in Nihonbashi, Edo
• Childhood name Yoshisaburō
• 1811 (age 14), entered under first-generation Utagawa Toyokuni (same door as Kunisada)
• 1814, independent under the name “Kuniyoshi”
• Unrecognized in his youth, does not fully bloom until around 40
• April 14, 1861, died at 65

Turning Point — Tsūzoku Suikoden Gōketsu Hyakuhachi-nin no Hitori (1827)

• In 1827 (age 30), from the publisher Kagaya, released a warrior-print series drawing each of the 108 characters of the Chinese chivalrous novel Suikoden (Water Margin) on one sheet each
• Title: Tsūzoku Suikoden Gōketsu Hyakuhachi-nin no Hitori
• Portrayed the Chinese heroic warriors in bold warrior prints
• A great hit in Edo — Kuniyoshi became the leading figure of warrior prints

This series changed Kuniyoshi’s fate. Unknown until age 30, Kuniyoshi from his 40s becomes an absolute presence in warrior prints, weird prints, and caricature.

Four Sides of His Style

1. Warrior Prints

• Bold movement, group combat
• In the Suikoden lineage, also draws Japanese generals (Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Takeda Shingen, Kusunoki Masashige)
• Expressed social unease of the late Edo in warrior prints (=readers could reread it as “heroes toppling evil rule”)
• Representative works: Tsūzoku Suikoden, Honchō Musha Kagami, Taiheiki Eiyū-den

2. Weird and Yōkai Pictures

• Sōma no Furudairi (c. 1845) — the giant skeleton summoned by the daughter of Taira no Masakado, Princess Takiyasha. The three-sheet giant skeleton is strange even to modern eyes
• Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsui — ghost stories of each post station
• Kisokaidō Rokujūkyū-tsugi — the combination of the highway and the weird

3. Caricature and Parody

• Minamoto no Yorimitsu Kō no Tachi Tsuchigumo Sakuyō Zu (1843) — outwardly a Heian picture, actually a satirical picture criticizing the shogunate
• Mikake wa Kowai ga Tondaii Hito da — a great face made of the aggregate of people. Contrast of appearance and inner content
• Uo Zukushi — a caricature that anthropomorphizes fish
• Neko no Ateji — cats forming kanji

These are evaluated as forerunners of modern characterization, parody, and GIF animation.

4. Western-Style and Perspective Experiments

• Kuniyoshi absorbed Western perspective by self-study
• Tried Western-style backgrounds in series like Chūshingura Jūichi-danme
• The sea depiction of Sanuki-in Kenzoku wo Shite Tametomo wo Sukū Zu, etc., show clear influence of Western painting

The Cat-Loving Painter

Kuniyoshi was an ardent cat lover, and left many cat pictures throughout his life:

• Myōkaikō Gojūsan-biki (1848) — a parody of Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi with cats
• Neko no Ateji series — cat poses forming kanji
• Tatoe-tsukushi no Uchi (=Neko Kotowaza-zukushi) — proverbs about cats
• Said to have kept several dozen cats in his own home

As one source of modern Japan’s cat character culture (Sōseki’s I Am a Cat, the beckoning-cat, Kumamon, etc.), Kuniyoshi’s cat pictures are cited.

The Disciple Line — “Kuniyoshi’s Studio”

Kuniyoshi raised many disciples:

• Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) — detailed in the next article, bloody prints and modern painting
• Ochiai Yoshiiku — a late-Edo painter alongside Yoshitoshi
• Kawanabe Kyōsai — an eccentric of the Meiji era
• Utagawa Yoshifuji — master of omocha-e (toy prints)
• Utagawa Yoshitora — Yokohama prints

Kuniyoshi’s studio, as “the bridge to the Meiji era,” becomes the main bearer of painting, satire, and newspaper illustration of the late-Edo to Meiji era.

Kunisada vs. Kuniyoshi — Two Contrasting Figures

The two great giants of the same door (first-generation Toyokuni):

Element	Kunisada	Kuniyoshi
Life	1786-1865	1798-1861
Main genre	Bijin-ga, actor prints	Warrior prints, weird, caricature
Style	Mass, stable	Innovative, experimental
Relation to shogunate	Obedient	Satirical, critical
Lifetime fame	Great from early on	Only after 40
Disciple line	Artisanal	Innovators like Yoshitoshi
Modern evaluation	The quantitative representative	The qualitative representative

Kunisada is the quantitative mainstream of late-Edo ukiyo-e; Kuniyoshi is the qualitative innovator. By this division of labor, the Utagawa school dominated the Edo ukiyo-e market.

The Tenpō Reforms (1841-1843) and the Utagawa School

The Tenpō Reforms were the shogunate’s discipline policy under Mizuno Tadakuni. They had great impact on ukiyo-e too:

Prohibitions

• 1842, prohibited the writing of the real names of courtesans and actors on prints
• Instructions banning the reproduction of stage dialogue and scenes
• Prohibition of luxurious nishiki-e (mica printing, 15-color printing, etc.)

Publishers and painters of actor prints and bijin-ga were struck. Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, and Hiroshige were forced to respond.

The Painters’ Evasive Measures

• Actor names shown by alias or blank characters
• Bijin-ga made general as “town girls” or “manners”
• Shift of subject to warrior prints and martial pictures (so as not to appear as shogunate criticism, on the surface they became history)
• Kuniyoshi’s Minamoto no Yorimitsu Kō no Tachi Tsuchigumo Sakuyō Zu — history on the surface, actually a critique of the reforms

The Tenpō Reforms ended in 1843 with the fall of Mizuno Tadakuni, but in these two years the ukiyo-e market contracted, deciding the trend up to the end of the shogunate.

Late-Edo Ukiyo-e and Social Unease

1850-1867 (Ansei-Keiō), Edo was in an era of upheaval:

• 1853, Perry’s arrival
• 1854, Great Ansei Earthquake
• 1858, cholera epidemic (Hiroshige also died)
• 1858-1859, Ansei Purge
• 1866, Chōshū expedition
• 1867, restoration of imperial rule

The Utagawa school’s warrior prints and weird pictures reflect these social unrest:

• Warrior-print heroes = symbols of toppling evil rule (readers’ wish)
• Yōkai in weird pictures = symbols of inscrutable external pressure and disaster
• Caricature and parody = venting of dissatisfaction that could not be said openly

Ukiyo-e functioned as a medium reflecting the mood of the late-Edo populace.

The Utagawa School’s Production Volume and Distribution

In late-Edo Edo, Utagawa school prints:

• Several hundred new works published a month
• Bought by common people at 12-16 mon per sheet (equivalent to 400-600 yen today)
• Distributed at picture-book shops and rental libraries
• Also transported to the provinces via the highways
• Also into the illustrations of books (gōkan, kusa-zōshi)

This can be called the Edo version of the modern manga and anime industry. The Utagawa school was the core of “mass entertainment media.”

Meiji Restoration and the Utagawa School

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Utagawa school:

• Kunisada (Toyokuni III) had already died in 1865
• Kuniyoshi had also died in 1861
• Hiroshige had also died in 1858
• The disciples Yoshitoshi, Yoshiiku, Kyōsai continued activity in the Meiji era
• Shifted genre to newspaper illustration and satirical prints

After Meiji, ukiyo-e prints themselves declined rapidly. But the Utagawa school’s disciple line survived in the new media (newspapers, magazines). The next article’s Tsukioka Yoshitoshi bridges the way to Meiji painting.

Modern Re-evaluation of the Utagawa School

20th Century — Undervalued as “Painters of Mass Production”

In the first half of the 20th century, the scholarly world evaluated Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, and others as “inferior to Hokusai and Hiroshige.” Mass production, workshop production, and rough late-Edo works were the reasons.

21st Century — Re-evaluation

• 2011, Kuniyoshi Exhibition at the British Museum — a global Kuniyoshi boom
• 2015-2020, exhibitions of Kunisada and Kuniyoshi across Japan
• Kuniyoshi’s caricatures and cat pictures are compatible with SNS-era character culture
• The skeleton of Sōma no Furudairi and the aggregate of Mikake wa Kowai ga Tondaii Hito da are re-evaluated as modern art

From the modern viewpoint, late-Edo ukiyo-e has its own charm as kitsch and interesting, and as a fusion of social satire and entertainment.

From This Article to the Next

Even within the disciples of the Utagawa school, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) occupies a special position. As a disciple of Kuniyoshi, he painted warrior prints and bloody prints in the late Edo, and after the Meiji Restoration he transformed into newspaper illustration and historical painting, becoming the first great master of Meiji painting. The next article traces Yoshitoshi’s life — bridging “the end of ukiyo-e” and “the beginning of modern Japanese painting” — and his representative work Tsuki Hyakushi.