The Utagawa School (Japan, founded 1760s)
The Utagawa School was a premier ukiyo-e studio in Edo period Japan. Founded by Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814) in 1760’s, the school is famous for its images of beautiful women (bijin-ga), uki-e—or pictures that incorporated depth by employing western-style one-point perspective—and images of kabuki actors called yakusha-e. As was common at the time, the apprentices took art-names (gō) from their master, with successive generations taking the names of former seniors as they moved up through the ranks. Thus, it can be difficult to know which Kunihiro or Kuniyoshi created the works in our collection. Additionally, there were occasionally two artists working within a school who might be using the same name at the same time due to contested seniority. Known active-dates for those using the names in our collection indicate two possibilities for two of them, with only Utagawa Yoshitora having a concrete time:
Utagawa Kunihiro: Third generation (1816-1835) or fourth generation (1825-1840)
Utagawa Kuniyoshi: Third generation (1798 -1816) or fourth generation (1840)
Utagawa Yoshitora: Fourth generation (1830-1870)
