Utagawa KUNISADA II (1823-1880)

KUNISADAII

Utagawa Kunisada II (1823 – 1880) was the adopted son and student of Utagawa Kunisada I. He is also known as Kunimasa III and Toyokuni IV. When he inherited the house of Kunisada I in about 1850–51, he took the name Kunsada II.

Kunisada II’s style is similar to his master. Also, his productivity was comparable to Kunisada. Kunisada II worked on fourty series of actor prints (yakusha-e), portraits of beauties (bijin-ga), different scenes from literature and also erotica (shunga). One of his best-known actor series, The Tale of the Eight Dog Heroes (Hakkendun inu no sōshi no uchi), dating from 1852, is influenced by Kyokutei Bakin’s epic novel The Satomi Clan and the Eight Dogs (Nansō Satomi hakkenden), written from 1814-1842, published in 106 volumes.