Utagawa Kunisada III

Utagawa Kunisada III, born in Edo as Hidehisa Takenouchi in 1848, was an artist from the Meiji period (1868 ~ 1912) known for his prints of kabuki actors. He initially studied under Utagawa Toyokuni III (Kunisada I) from the age of eleven and continued his artistic training under Toyokuni IV (Kunisada II) after his teacher`s death.
His childhood name was Chōtarō and his adult name was Eikyū, while his maternal surname was Takeuchi.
Throughout his career, he changed his artistic names several times, adopting Kunimasa IV and later, in 1889, taking the name Kunisada III, following the succession line of the Utagawa school. He subsequently adopted other art names such as Kōchōrō and Toyosai, and even attempted to use Toyokuni IV, but, since it was already claimed, he opted for Toyokuni V.
Kunisada III is mainly remembered for his bunmei kaika-e, prints depicting the modernizing Japan of the Meiji era, and yakusha-e (kabuki actors) particularly those of Ichikawa Sadanji. Besides actor prints, he also worked on book illustrations, game boards (e-sugoroku), and other popular Meiji period genres such as senso-e (war prints).