Utagawa Kuniyoshi was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting. He was a member of the Utagawa school.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was a Japanese printmaker.
Konishi Hirosada was the most prolific Osaka-based designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints during the late Edo period. Like most producers of kamigata-e (上方絵)—prints originating in the Osaka and Kyoto regions—he specialized in yakusha-e actor prints. Hirosada is particularly known for his diptychs and triptychs, and for his many ōkubi-e portraits of the leading actors on the Osaka kabuki stage during his day.
Utagawa Yoshiiku, also known as or Ochiai Yoshiiku, was a Japanese artist of the Utagawa school.
Hiroshige II was a Japanese designer of ukiyo-e art. He inherited the name Hiroshige II following the death in 1858 of his master Hiroshige, whose daughter he married. In 1865 he moved from Edo to Yokohama after dissolving his marriage and began using the name Kisai Risshō. His work so resembles that of his master that scholars have often confused them.
Utagawa Toyokuni II (1777–1835), also known as Toyoshige, was a designer of ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints in Edo. He was the pupil, son-in-law and adopted son of Toyokuni I. The former used the name Toyoshige (豊重) until 1826, the year after his teacher's death, when the family gave him the right to use his teacher's name and he began signing his work Toyokuni (豊国). In 1835 he died, and in 1844 the family persuaded Kunisada, the most famous student of Toyokuni I, to use the name "Toyokuni" and become leader of the school. Although Kunisada never recognised Toyoshige's right to the name Toyokuni, nevertheless Kunisada after 1844 is always referred to as Toyokuni III.
Ukiyo-e artists may be organized into schools, which consist of a founding artist and those artists who were taught by or strongly influenced by him. Artists of the Osaka school are united both stylistically and geographically. Not all of these artists designed woodblock prints, and some ukiyo-e artists had more than one teacher, and others are not known to be associated with any particular school.
The term aizuri-e usually refers to Japanese woodblock prints that are printed entirely or predominantly in blue. When a second color is used, it is usually red. Even if only a single type of blue ink was used, variations in lightness and darkness (value) could be achieved by superimposing multiple printings of parts of the design or by the application of a gradation of ink to the wooden printing block (bokashi).
Utagawa Hirokage, also known as Ichiyūsai Hirokage, was a Japanese designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, who was active from about 1855 to 1865. He was a pupil of Utagawa Hiroshige I. From 1860 to 1861, Hirokage designed the series of ōban size prints titled Edo meisho dōke zukushi. His reputation is based primarily upon this series and his 1859 triptych Aomono sakana gunzei daikassen no zu.
Utagawa Kunimasu was a designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in Osaka who was active during the late Edo period. He was a leading producer of kamigata-e, prints from the Osaka and Kyoto areas. He is also known as Sadamasu [貞升], the artist name he used prior to Kunimasu.
Gatōken Shunshi was a designer of ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints in Osaka who was active from about 1820 to 1828. He was a student of Shunkōsai Hokushū and the teacher of Gakōken Shunshi. Gatōken Shunshi is best known for his portraits of the kabuki actors, especially the star Onoe Tamizō II.
Utagawa Yoshitora was a designer of ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints and an illustrator of books and newspapers who was active from about 1850 to about 1880. He was born in Edo, but neither his date of birth nor date of death is known. However, he was the oldest pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi who excelled in prints of warriors, kabuki actors, beautiful women, and foreigners (Yokohama-e). He may not have seen any of the foreign scenes he depicted.
Yokohama-e are Japanese woodblock prints depicting non-East Asian foreigners and scenes in the port city of Yokohama.
Utagawa Yoshitaki, who is also known as Ichiyōsai Yoshitaki, was a Japanese designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints who was active in both Edo (Tokyo) and Osaka. He was also a painter and newspaper illustrator. His father was a paste merchant, and Yoshitaki became a student of Utagawa Yoshiume (1819–1879). Yoshitaki was the most prolific designer of woodblock prints in Osaka from the 1860s to the 1880s, producing more than 1,200 different prints, almost all of kabuki actors.
An ōkubi-e is a Japanese portrait print or painting in the ukiyo-e genre showing only the head or the head and upper torso. Katsukawa Shunkō I (1743–1812) is generally credited with producing the first ōkubi-e. He, along with Katsukawa Shunshō, designed ōkubi-e of male kabuki actors. In the early-1790s, Utamaro designed the first ōkubi-e of beautiful women. The shogunate authorities banned ōkubi-e in 1800, but the ban was lifted after eight years.
Shunbaisai Hokuei, also known as Shunkō III, was a designer of ukiyo-e style Japanese woodblock prints in Osaka, and was active from about 1824 to 1837. He was a student of Shunkōsai Hokushū. Hokuei’s prints most often portray the kabuki actor Arashi Rikan II.
Ryūkōsai Jokei was a painter, illustrator, and designer of ukiyo-e-style Japanese woodblock prints in Osaka, who was active from about 1777 to 1809. He was a student of Shitomi Kangetsu (1747–1797), who in turn was the son and pupil of Tsukioka Settei (1710–1786). Ryūkōsai is considered to be either the founder or one of the founders of the Osaka school of ukiyo-e. He is best known for his portraits of actors. His prints are mostly in the hosoban format.
Ryūsai Shigeharu (柳窗重春/柳斎重春) (1802–1853) was an Osaka-based Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print artist active during the first half of the nineteenth century. A member of the Utagawa school, he was one of a very select group of kamigata-e print artists who were able to support themselves solely as professional artists.
Fushiga is a genre of ukiyo-e woodblock prints depicting satirical pictures accompaniyed with text. Fushiga prints usually depicted ordinary people in their everyday activities, with their exclamations written next to them, and not celebrities or famous landscapes. Fushiga relied more on text than on the image, and because of that was "virtually ignored by Western critics of the print".
