UTAGAWA / 歌川派

One of the most famous schools in Japanese print-making in the 19^th century was that of the Utagawa dynasty founded at the end of the 18^th century by the master of the uki-e genre, Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814). His large school with its various different branches left behind it a legacy of many paintings and graphic works in a variety of genres, of which the predominant ones were theatrical prints and historical heroic subjects.

Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1825), who headed the dynasty at the end of the 18^th century and beginning of the 19^th was famous for his full-length portraits of actors against neutral backgrounds and also for his prints. Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864), a pupil of Toyokuni I, became the head of the dynasty in the first half of the 19^th century. Another pupil of Toyokuni I, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), created many series of historical and heroic prints depicting samurai and battle scenes (musha-e, rekishi-ga).