Utagawa Kunimaro

Utagawa Kunimaro, also signing works under several art names including Fusahiro, Ichienzai, Matsuchōrō, Kirakusai, and Maromaru, was an ukiyo-e artist active from the late Edo period into the early Meiji era. Born as Kikutarō Kikugoshi, he first studied under Utagawa Sadafusa before continuing his training with Utagawa Kunisada and later Utagawa Toyokuni IV.
Among his best-known surviving works is the series Famous Places of the Tōtō Canal. His oeuvre includes single-sheet prints, illustrated books, sugoroku game prints, and landscapes, as well as illustrations of famous places and scenes of everyday life, reflecting the changing tastes and society of late Edo and early Meiji Japan. During his career, he changed his artistic name from Fusahiro to Kunimaro, a common practice among ukiyo-e artists marking important stages in an artist`s professional development. His poetic name (haimyō) was Kikuō.
Some scholars have suggested that he may have been identical with the artist Matsuchōrō Kansai, although this identification remains uncertain.

Artwork Description
Jirōtayū Abe no Sadatō
Edo
This print depicts Abe no Sadatō, a warrior of the Abe clan lived in the 11th century.
His clan was set in which by the time was called Mutsu province extending across the modern prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori and Akita. His father, Yoritoki, was put in charge of overseeing the Ainu population, defending the northern boundaries of the territory, and for this he had been bestowed of one of the highest the military rank by the time: the Chinjufu Shōgun.
During the Former nine years war (including some truces the conflict spanned from 1051 to 1063), he fought alongside with his father against the Minamoto clan.
Yoritoki was killed in 1057, and Sadatō succeeded him as the clan leader, winning one battle after another until 1062, when the Minamoto`s troops were joined by reinforcement and put Sadatō under a siege. After having run out of supplies, saw is troops attacked and his fortress set aflame he surrendered.
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