Utagawa Kunikazu
1847 ~ 1881Utagawa Kunikazu, also known as Isshūsai, was an artist from Ōsaka active from the late Edo period to the 1880s of the Meiji era. He produced hundreds of prints,
and new ones are still being discovered today as research on him continues.
Kunikazu worked almost exclusively in the medium format (chūban), but he did not focus solely on the yakusha-e (actor prints) genre, as most Ōsaka artists did. Instead, he expanded his production
to include fūkei-ga (landscapes), sensō-e (war prints), nagasaki-e (images of Nagasaki), and bijin-ga (images of beautiful women).
It is known that Kunikazu may have spent a period of his life in Edo ( modern Tokyo) as a disciple of Kunisada Utagawa. Kunikazu is best known for his actor prints, but he also produced landscapes
and kuchi-e (book frontispieces), demonstrating a versatility that extends beyond the typical focus on kabuki actors.
