Utagawa Toyokuni, also often referred to as Toyokuni I, to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his gō (art-name) after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his kabuki actor prints. He was the second head of the renowned Utagawa school of Japanese woodblock artists, and was the artist who elevated it to the position of great fame and power it occupied for the rest of the nineteenth century.
Toyokuni Utagawa by Kunisada
Onoe Eisaburo I, c. 1800
Ichikawa Komazo and Ichikawa Yaozo; circa 1800
Matsumoto Koshiro V; circa 1800s
Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. The term ukiyo-e translates as 'picture[s] of the floating world'.
Tokugawa Ieyasu established his government in the early 17th century in Edo (modern Tokyo).Portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Kanō school painting, Kanō Tan'yū, 17th century
The Hikone screen may be the oldest surviving ukiyo-e work, dating to c. 1624–1644.
Early woodblock print, Hishikawa Moronobu, late 1670s or early 1680s
Standing portrait of a courtesanInk and colour painting on silk, Kaigetsudō Ando, c. 1705–10