Utagawa Kunisada II(1823-1880) was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

printmaker, one of three to take the name "Utagawa Kunisada."

A pupil of Utagawa Kunisada I

Kunisada

Utagawa Kunisada was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan...

, he signed much of his early work "Baidō Kunimasa III." He took the name Kunisada after marrying his master's eldest daughter in 1846. He changed his name once more following his master's death, to Toyokuni III. However, since there were three artists called Toyokuni before him, Kunisada II is now often known as Toyokuni IV.

Kunisada II is renowned for his prints. His favourite subjects were pleasure-houses and tea ceremonies. These themes are sometimes found together in some of his prints, as geishas usually acted as chaperones at tea-houses.

Signatures

Kunisada II usually signed prints either 国貞画 (Kunisada ga, drawn by Kunisada) or 国貞筆 (Kunisada hitsu, from the brush of Kunisada). He did not sign prints “Kunisada II”. His signature may be distinguished from that of Kunisada I

Kunisada

Utagawa Kunisada was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan...

 in that the sada kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 is straight in the signature of Kunisada I

Kunisada

Utagawa Kunisada was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan...

, but angular in the signature of Kunisada II (see figure).